


the espurr effect

by ryukogo



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Fae & Fairies, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Magic, Multi, Polyamory, PostwickShipping, bede: become espurr, bedespurr au, but victor lives a little further up in wedgehurst, gloria and hop live in the same places ingame, gloria and victor aren't related, i'm not sure what the names for victor/hop and victor/hop/gloria are please help, pastelgothshipping, they're childhood friends, trainshipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:13:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryukogo/pseuds/ryukogo
Summary: The one time he steps out of Ballonlea when he normally didn't and does a friend a solid, and he gets turned into a shiny Espurr by fairies who think that doing so 'saved his life'.This is what he got for living with the wizard of bullshit herself.And now everyone thinks he's dead. Good fucking grief,---In which Bede nearly dies, becomes an Espurr, wants to choke Gloria and Hop, becomes better friends with Victor, and realizes he's beginning to crush on Marnie.Not necessarily in that order.
Relationships: (eventually), Beet | Bede/Mary | Marnie, Masaru | Victor/Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 69
Kudos: 225





	1. The Slumbering Weald

**Author's Note:**

> fanfics you guys should read: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21860710/chapters/52173946, aka Milo Turns Into an Eldegoss and Has a Rough Time by WolfStarmie, because that fic spurred me on to write this bullshit
> 
> anyway, bedemarnie is one of the rarest of pairs and here i am boarding the rarest of pairs train again

**CHAPTER 1: THE SLUMBERING WEALD**

* * *

“Can I- how do I put this - can I ask you something?”

“Ah dinnae,  _ can  _ ye?”

The look that crosses Bede’s face screams that he’d like nothing more than to choke the living daylights out of Gloria. 

Victor intervenes before anything else can happen, elbowing Gloria’s side before gesturing for Bede to continue. “Go on, Bede. What were you going to ask?”

“First of all,  _ thank you,  _ Victor, and second of all,” Bede inhales for a moment, and then flares his arms out to gesture to their surroundings in a fit of irritation. “Why the  _ fuck  _ are we out in the Slumbering Weald?”

Victor scratches at his cheek awkwardly. “Well… uh. It was Gloria’s idea, mainly.”

“Clearly. The most asinine ideas come from her.”

“The  _ feck  _ you say ‘bout my ideas, beet?!”

Bede turns to Gloria and gives her a most infuriating smirk - almost as bad as the smirks he used to have while he was still being endorsed by Rose. Those smirks nowadays were more tempered with the kind of mischief that the residents of Ballonlea usually had - a smile that Sonia described as ‘belonging to the fae’ in spirit. “I said your idea was fucking nuts, Gloria.”

“And wha’ makes ye say that, huh?!”

Bede raises an eyebrow, smirk falling into a frown. “Well, for one. We’ve been walking for a while now and you still haven’t told any of us  _ why  _ we’re here in the first place.”

Pause.

Gloria’s cheeks take on a furious shade of red, and Bede secures another victory under his belt. Score one for Bede, score… fifty seven for Gloria. Or was it sixty? He wasn’t honestly keeping track. Hop probably was though.

Speaking of him…

“Hold on a minute. Where’s that spiky-haired boyfriend of yours?” Bede looks around the Slumbering Weald, wary of Hop popping out suddenly to pick him up and fling him into the creek… not that Hop would do that unless it was explicitly stated that he was  _ allowed  _ to - and even then he’d be wary about it especially with Bede.

Now  _ Gloria _ , on the other hand - Bede knew she would at the slightest opportunity. And who could blame her? Practically  _ anyone  _ could lift Bede - and through no fault of his own, really. He was, as Victor described it (as gently as possible), light and dainty like a fairy. Which pleased Opal, sure, and when Opal was happy Bede was happy and vice versa.

But  _ damn  _ it was embarrassing that all his friends could carry him with no effort at all.

_ Were  _ they his friends? Well, he respected them all, certainly - especially Victor and Gloria, who were the two finalists in the Champion Cup before Leon had to inevitably face one of them. For quite a while the two had been stuck in a stalemate until Victor had narrowly won against her thanks to a well timed burn, allowing him to move on to fight Leon and eventually claim the title of Champion. Gloria, on her end, had decided to move on to dominate the Battle Tower in his stead, taking much pleasure in knocking Leon’s socks off whenever she could. Metaphorically.

Hop had gone on to be Sonia’s assistant at the Pokemon Lab - something that, in his opinion, was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that Sonia had an assistant, a curse in that most of the time Sonia would send him out to collect data - and Gloria and Victor would inevitably follow if they caught wind of it.

And if they caught wind, they usually dragged Bede into it despite his protests.

Well, it wasn’t so bad… usually. Bede would  _ never  _ admit it out loud, but being pulled out of Ballonlea and into a Corviknight taxi with the two Postwick natives was refreshing in a way that reminded him of nights out camping in the wild, the stars above their head and his Pokemon as his only company. Back then, he’d still been endorsed by Rose.

Thinking about the man left a bittersweet taste on his tongue - thinking about both him  _ and  _ Oleana tasted like steel on his lips.

And fairies hated steel.

Bede discards the thought - just in time to see Victor’s cheeks turn a most interesting shade in between scarlet and fuchsia at the insinuation.  _ Ah.  _ “What? Did I get that wrong? Are you  _ not  _ romantically involved with Hop?”

“Well- it’s  _ really  _ hard to say-” There he goes, fumbling over his words again. It’s annoyingly endearing, Bede thinks - but for Gloria and Hop he assumes it’s just endearing, seeing as that they grew up with him. And are romantically involved with him. But what does he  _ mean,  _ it’s hard to say?

Gloria elbows him before sticking a tongue out at Bede. “Like we hafta answer t’ye, Espurr boy.”

“ _ Espurr  _ boy?!” Bede flares up at the insinuation that he looked like an Espurr - just in time for a familiar head of purple hair to cross his vision, behind Gloria’s smug face and Victor’s worried one. He deflates like a balloon. “ _ There _ you are.”

Victor and Gloria simultaneously make similar looks of confusion before turning around, just as Hop looks up from whatever he’s doing. At the sight of the three, he waves enthusiastically before attempting to run over to them - and tripping over a Blipbug that had been crossing his path.

Bede lightly bites the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing as Victor helps the other up, checking to see if he’s alright. He’s definitely alright - guy’s been through worse, and it looked like Sonia had padded him all over  _ just  _ for scenarios like these based on how light the thump on the ground was at his fall. How advanced in thought she was.

“What’re you guys doing here in the Weald?” Hop asks, looking at each of them in turn. His gaze in particular lingers in confusion on Bede for quite some time. “Especially you, Bede. You don’t usually come out this time of year.”

“And what does  _ that  _ mean?”

Victor tries to answer politely. “It means you tend to… uh, to put it politely-”

“- ‘round this time a’ year, yer a feckin’ ‘ermit that ‘oles up in the Ballonlea gym,” Gloria finishes not-so politely.

Bede huffs. They weren’t  _ wrong _ , in a sense - around this time of year Ballonlea held plays for everyone in the Galar region even before Victor had become Champion. Opal and the Ballonlea gym trainers in particular were very keen on involving Bede with these preparations ever since he’d been chosen as Opal’s successor, and while he had to admit all the heavy lifting with the props helped build his stamina, he wasn't particularly fond of being smacked in the face repeatedly by his Mawile, who was  _ never  _ satisfied by his practice performances for the plays.

And lucky him, his Mawile was  _ always  _ cast as his co-actress.

“Well, I suppose you’re  _ correct _ in that I’m not  _ normally  _ outside Ballonlea this time of year, but as for  _ why  _ I’m here, you should ask your idiots,” Bede jerks a thumb at Victor and Gloria. “Because they’re the ones that dragged me out here.”

“We were lookin’ for ye!” Gloria answers cheerfully when Hop turns to her. “Sonia told us where she sent ye and we thought we’d come help ye out!”

Hop raises an eyebrow and glances at Bede once. “And you brought Bede why?”

“No idea,” Victor answers honestly.

“To piss him off,” Gloria answers sweetly.

Bede swears violently.

Hop, to his credit, only laughs before rubbing the back of his head apologetically. “Aw, you guys didn’t have to. I was already doing pretty okay, actually - but I’m not gonna send you away or anything! Field work is exciting, but it becomes even more fun with friends!”

“Just friends?” Bede gives him a sharklike grin.

Victor and Gloria’s faces simultaneously whiten as Hop’s face brightens up. “Yeah! Friends! Like you Bede, and Marnie! And Gloria and Victor too!” Victor wheezes with barely disguised relief. Bede can’t help the snicker that leaves his lips at his words.

“Well, since you guys are already here… mind helping me round up some pictures of Corviknight?” Hop rummages around his bag for something before holding out modified Rotom phones. “Use these cameras - Sonia asked me to document the differences between the Corviknight and Butterfree in the wild area and in the Slumbering Weald in terms of disposition and activity, and I already have the stuff needed for the Butterfree. I’d be able to finish faster with your help.”

Victor takes one of the phones in Hop’s hands as Gloria asks, “Jus’ pictures?”

“Videos would help, but those take up a lot more space on the Rotom phones and Sonia only gave me so many as backups,” Hop scratches his cheek thoughtfully as Bede semi-reluctantly plucks a phone from his hold as well. “For now, pictures will do.”

Bede’s hand taps surprisingly gently on the Rotom phone to turn it on, and when the Rotom awakens, he turns to Hop. “You know, you don’t really  _ need  _ our help for this. The Rotoms can do all the photo capturing on their own while you write down everything.”

“Well,  _ actually _ ,” Hop taps his chin, a hand on his hip. “I tried that earlier with the Butterfree, but since I had four Rotom phones on the go, I couldn’t exactly keep track of  _ everything _ . Can’t be in four places at once, after all. But now that you’re here…”

“We can  _ def’nitely  _ help,” Gloria agrees.

Bede opens his mouth to make another argument, but Gloria stomps on his foot to silence him. He hisses at her as she whistles semi-innocently.  _ I’m going to fucking  _ **_choke_ ** _ her one day. _

“Great! I’ll be covering the western part of the Weald since I already got a head start there,” Hop pulls out a map - Bede swears he heard Gloria make a side comment about how at least Hop wasn’t pants at directions like his brother was - and for the most part circles areas with his index finger. The map itself feels very crudely made, but in Hop’s defense, the Weald wasn’t perfectly and completely documented. Even now as Bede peers over Victor’s shoulder at the map there’s a large portion of the map that isn’t as detailed as the rest.

Unfortunately, that’s what Hop points to when he talks to him. “Bede, you take the northern part of the Weald over here! I stopped documenting the northern part the other day because I had to go home before it got too dark and I got lost like Lee did, so I’d really appreciate it if you could write down a little bit of the northern section of the Weald while you took pictures and notes!”

“Why  _ me? _ ”

“I think it’s because you’re good at navigating the Glimwood Tangle,” Victor appeases. “Since you live next to it in Ballonlea. And the Tangle is about as complex as the Weald and-”

Bede groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That’s  _ different _ . The Glimwood Tangle is smaller than the Slumbering Weald and thrives off faerie magic-”

“Wot, y’mean like… Fairy types?”

“I mean like  _ faeries,  _ Gloria. Actual, real life, faeries,” Bede runs a hand through his hair, finding that his curls are a sufficient enough substitute for his Rapidash’s own mane in the meantime. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on the fence about them actually being all around me, but I won’t disrespect them. Opal thinks very highly of them.”

When Bede looks up at Hop, the scientist is starry eyed. Oh no.  _ Maybe mentioning the fae was a mistake.  _ “Faeries are  _ real?! _ ”

“I neither deny nor confirm this statement.”

“Oh, come off it, Hop, he’s prob’ly messin’ wi’ ye,” Gloria claps a hand on Hop’s shoulder, which is a feat in itself because Gloria’s shorter than all of them currently there. “Anyway, still don’t mean ye cannae explore th’ northern part o’ tha Weald. Ye got experience navigatin’ forests.”

Bede raises an eyebrow. “And you don’t? I know for a fact the three of you have gone in this very Weald  _ multiple  _ times to catch Zacian and Zamazenta and deal with those sword and shield bastards Shieldward and Sordbert.”

“Sordward and Shielbert,” Victor corrects, but he’s trying not to laugh.

“I could really give less of a shit about the two of them.”

“Anyway!” Hop holds up both hands, his blue Rotom phone floating around them as he does so. Victor, thankfully, is holding the map still when he does this. “I’d  _ really  _ appreciate it, Bede. Like, as a solid. Just this once. I’ll never ask you for anything ever again ever if you do me this one solid.”

Bede squints at him.

Hop grins back at him.

“... Never ask me for anything ever again after this.”

“I promise!”

Bede turns on his heel and gestures for his assigned Rotom phone to follow. “Meet you all at the entrance to the Weald later.”

“All right, mate!” Hop cheers. “Be seeing you! Now, Vic, you take the east, and Glo, you take the south…”

Their voices fade away the farther he gets. He won’t admit it, but eventually he misses their noise.

* * *

_ Click! _

_ Click! _

**_Coooorvi._ **

_ Click! _

_ Click! _

“‘The Corviknight… in the Weald… possess a plumage more attuned to the forested area… in comparison to the Corviknight… in the wild area…”

_ Click! _

**_Rooroorooki! Rooooroooookidee!_ **

_ Click! _

_ Click! _

“‘Their offspring Rookidee… they are similar to normal Rookidee… but have been shown to have better eyesight than the wild area Rookidee… because of their foggy and forested… surroundings…’”

_ Click! _

_ Click! _

“Think this is enough data, Sylvie?”

“Sylv. Syl veeeee.”

“... I don’t know what you said, but you’re probably right.”

Bede sighs, leaning against a tree trunk as the Rotom phone continues on photographing a Corviknight sitting calmly on a nearby fallen log. His Sylveon, Sylvie, brushes her cheek against his leg reassuringly as Bede takes note of the path they’d taken to their current location.  _ A general right turn after a left, taking the left path when a crossroads presents itself… good lord, the Weald is bigger than I thought it was. No wonder Hop was so eager to split the work.  _ He looks up as the Corviknight takes off to the treetops.  _ This place is bigger than even the Tangle. _

_ Click! _

_ Click! _

_ Crrr- ERROR! _

Bede looks up. Rotom floats over.

“ _ Bzzt! I’ve collected a total of a thousand five hundred thirty images of the Corviknight in this section of the Weald, _ ” Rotom reports, scrolling through its contents. “ _ And two short videos of the Rookidee nest we saw earlier to collate with pre-existing Rookidee hatching videos! My hard drive is currently full, bzzt.” _

“Already?” Bede sighs and holds out a hand, gesturing for the Rotom phone to rest. Once settled in his palm, the Rotom phone goes to sleep, and Bede pockets the phone absently while recalling Sylvie into her ball. “Might as well head on back now that all the space is used up. Vira, where are-”

His hand brushes over where his Gardevoir’s Pokeball normally is. It’s empty.

_ Shit,  _ he curses. He’d forgotten he’d left his Gardevoir, Hatterene, and Mawile to help with this year’s play since Gloria and Victor (mostly Gloria) had dragged him out that day. His Rapidash’s Pokeball too was distinctly missing, since Annette had graciously asked to borrow him for the day’s rehearsal since Bede was going out. This meant only Sylvie was with him - and Sylvie couldn’t teleport.

Bede looks up to the treetops again, and groans heavily before setting out.

His shoes crunching dead leaves underfoot, Bede lets his mind wander, aimlessly letting himself follow the path he’d taken earlier back to the entrance to the Weald. The whistling forest wind tousles his hair and ruffles his clothes as he walks, and unbeknownst to him, he is being watched from underneath toadstools and from within tree trunks. Tiny little eyes of varying shapes and sizes watch him curiously.

_ Opal? (Opal?) _

Bede stops.

Silence.

He looks around, and then continues on.  _ I could’ve sworn I heard something… _

_ Opal? (Opal?) _

Bede stops again, squinting at his surroundings. And yet, he finds nothing. Mildly unsettled, he walks slightly faster.

And hears it again.

The third time he hears Opal’s name being echoed, he makes a misstep - right into a Galarian Stunfisk’s waiting jaws. It clamps on his leg, and with a most undignified yelp, Bede tries to shake off the Ground and Steel type Pokemon, stumbling around like a waddling Cramorant with a Pikachu in its gullet. In his haste to get it off, his hands accidentally knock Sylvie’s Pokeball off his belt, but doesn’t call her out. The Rotom phone also falls out next to Sylvie’s ball, along with the notes he’d written for Hop and the others.

“Ow! Get  _ off  _ me! I’m  _ not  _ a Pokemon!” Bede growls, hands grabbing desperately around him, trying to find something to firmly shove the Stunfisk off of him as he stumbles and hops all around and backwards-

His hand grabs onto a branch, and breaks it. The arc of motion makes the branch swivel and whack the Stunfisk once, and it lets go of him to bounce away, upset.

But his balance is already lost.

His heel makes contact with a tree root - one bordering the other edge of the hillside of the Weald.

Bede tumbles, and falls.

But he does not crash.

* * *

_ A human! (A human!) _

**_It’s a human… we saved a human._ **

_ Take it away! (Take it away!) _

**_Wait… hold on for a bit._** **_That’s Opal’s boy, isn’t it? The one she says has been hurt by the much crueler humans for far too long._**

_ Too long... (too long…) Cursed humans! (Cursed humans!) _

**_Look… over there. His leg. He’s also hurt physically. Poor thing._ **

_ Stunfisk! (Stunfisk!) _

_ Steel touched… don’t want that! (Don’t want it!) _

**_He’s not going to make it out here like this… fairies are weak to steel. And he is all but a fairy in form already. We have to do something._ **

_ Poor fairy boy… (poor fairy boy…) _

_ But what can we do? (What can we do?) _

**_Perhaps… we can give him a different means towards recovery, don’t you think?_ **

_ Different? (Different?) _

_ How? (How?) _

**_Pokemon have always healed faster than humans. Perhaps…_ **

_ Perhaps… (Perhaps…) _

* * *

_ “Bede?” _

_ “Beeeeeede!” _

**_Mmmrggh..._ **

_ “Aw great, we feckin’ lost him.” _

_ “He can’t be  _ **_that_ ** _ hard to find, can he?” _

_ “This is the feckin’ SLUMBERIN’ WEALD! The  _ **_las’_ ** _ time we got lost in here you nearly got carried away by a Weezing! What d’ye think they’d do to sparkly pink bitch Bede?!” _

**_Ugh, is that… Gloria?_ **

_ “Hopefully NOT get carried away by Weezing? Bede stands out here - surely we’d see him eventually. He said he’d meet us at the entrance to the Weald, and it’s been HOURS.” _

_ “Ah guess so… hope we find ‘im soon, or Opal’s gonna feckin’  _ **_kill_ ** _ us when we come back wi’out him.” _

**_But I’m right here…?_ **

Bede blinks open his eyes, and finds that he is on the grassy floor of the Slumbering Weald. Rolling over, his gaze meets the treetops and what little patches of light peek through shine in scattered patterns all around the corners of his vision. As he sits up, he hears the sound of rustling bushes, and suddenly he’s treated to the sight of  _ whoa when was Victor so tall what in the name of Zacian and Zamazenta. _

“Find anythin’, Vic?” Gloria’s voice calls over from a little farther aways. Bede tries to look, but for some reason cannot find the strength in his legs to stand up to his usual height, so he decides to stay in place.

Victor peers down at Bede, and for a moment Bede half expects him to say “Found him, Glo!” and cheekily smile and hold out a hand to him.

He does nothing of the sort.

Much to Bede’s confusion, Victor crouches  _ down  _ as though he were  _ shorter  _ than him, and rummages around his pockets for…  **_An Oran berry?_ **

“Hey there, little guy. I won’t hurt you, I promise!” **_The fuck?_** “Here. Do you want an Oran berry? Or do you like Pecha berries better?” **_The actual fuck?_** “Or maybe you’re one of the Pokemon who like the really fancy berries… I think I’m all out of them, actually. Maybe Glory has some.”

**_What in the name of fuck is going on._ **

“Oh! You’re hurt!” Victor tucks the Oran berry back into his bag before retrieving a Sitrus berry. “Here. This one heals better than Oran berries, and it tastes better, I think. At least, that’s what my Intelleon seems to think anyway. Though we’re gonna have to take you to a Pokemon Center to get that leg treated… I wonder if you’ll…” His voice drops into a mumble as he starts wondering out loud - as he usually did. Victor had a tendency to ramble.

Bede opens his mouth, ready to say, “Victor, you dolt, what are you doing?” - 

\- but all that comes out is an irritable sounding “Purruurrr espurr.”

Bede’s hands fly to his mouth in his shock, but there are no hands that make contact with his mouth - they don’t even  _ make  _ it anywhere close to his mouth. He looks down at his hands, and finds only little paws of pink tipped in white. He looks down - same thing. Well… mostly. There is an ugly looking scar on one of his little legs - on the same leg that the Stunfisk had bitten him.

**_What the fuck, what the fuck, what the FUCK-_ **

“Hey, what’s- what the- that’s my bag, hey!” Victor yelps as Bede lunges at his bag and rummages around for something,  _ anything  _ that was a reflective surface, until finally he comes across one of the TMs Victor and Gloria always carried around just in case and stares at his reflection.

…

The shiny Espurr in the reflection stares back.

He lifts a hand. The Espurr mirrors the action with its paw.

He touches his face. The Espurr does the same.

He sticks out his tongue. The Espurr does it right back.

…

… Ah.

Bede  _ screams _ .


	2. Postwick

**CHAPTER 2: POSTWICK**

* * *

Bede screams for five whole minutes.

To Victor and Gloria, waiting for him to stop, it only sounded like a high-pitched trilling “ESPURRRRRRR!” echoing throughout the Weald - loud enough to stir a few Rookidee out of their nests and send them crashing onto the forest floor. The frantic crying of the Rookidee startle the Skwovet out of their hiding places, and as Bede continues to scream, the rest of the Weald is awoken.

After the fifth minute passes, Gloria groans and reaches into her bag to pull out the feathery toy most of her Pokemon were inclined to play with. “Aight, wee one, stop yer cryin’, lookit the feathery toy ovah here, yeah?” She wiggles the feather toy at him. “C’mon, catchit, wee laddie! Er, lassie. Not sure - Victor?”

“Oh- uh-” Victor glances at his Pokedex, and sighs. “You can’t really tell if an Espurr is a male or a female on the outside unless they tell you themselves in some way. When they evolve into Meowstic, the differences are much more visible, but otherwise it’s-”

Bede stops screaming, pausing to take a large gulp of air. And another.

Victor and Gloria lean forward, wondering if the Espurr had stopped-

**_“PURRRRRRRRRR!!!”_ **

“Wee one’s no’ done yet,” Gloria winces, trying to clear out her ear with a pinkie finger at Bede’s shriek. “Ye didnae dae somethin’ ta it ‘fore ah got ta ye, Vic - did ye?”

Victor shakes his head wildly. “No! Of course not! I actually offered it an Oran and a Sitrus berry because of the-  _ fuck!”  _ The usually mild-mannered trainer swears, making both Gloria and Bede pause and stare at him. Victor almost  _ never  _ swore. “Glo, you know better about injured Pokemon, right? Er, that is, injuries you get in the wild?”

“Well, ah do, but wha’s that got tae do wi’ anythi-” Gloria’s eyes finally land on Bede’s wounded leg, and immediately her face morphs into one of worry. “Oh, tha poor thing! No wonder it’s been screamin’ its ‘ead off like tha’, tha’ looks feckin’ painful. C’mere, li’l Espurr-”

The moment Gloria reaches out for him, Bede’s first instinct is to bite her hand.

Which he does.

Gloria shrieks and withdraws her hand before snarling at the shiny Espurr. “ _ Arright,  _ ya li’l  _ bastard _ , ah was jus’ tryna help ye and  _ this  _ be the thanks ah get?!”

“ _ Esssss purrrr, _ ” The Espurr seems to snap back, and even though she doesn’t really understand what it said, Victor can  _ tell  _ that she understood the underlying  _ meaning _ , and with a vicious roar she lunges at the Espurr-

“There you guys are!”

Gloria freezes mid lunge, Victor freezes mid interference, and Bede freezes mid retaliation.

Hop’s head pops out from behind a tree - and then the rest of him. There are brambles stuck to his coat and leaves tangled in his hair, but otherwise he looks much better off than he normally did as his attention is drawn to Bede first.

Predictably, he’s ecstatic.

“That’s a shiny Espurr!” Hop immediately gets down on his knees to try and meet Bede eye to eye - keyword being  _ try _ . With how tiny his body currently is, Bede is forced to watch the 18-or-so Pokemon researcher’s assistant eventually press his lower arms and elbows to the dirt just to meet his wide eyed stare. “Aren’t you a cute little guy. Is he yours, Glo?”

“Tha’s a  _ guy?! _ ” Gloria exclaims, flabbergasted.

“That might explain why he bit your hand when you tried to baby him,” Victor laughs weakly. “How can you tell?”

“Male Espurr have sharper teeth than that of the females, whereas the females have sharper claws,” Hop’s focus fixates on Gloria’s injured hand this time as he gingerly reaches out to take it into his own hands. His fingers point at the wound Bede left behind, and Gloria, Victor, and even Bede all look over curiously as he explains, “If you look here closely, you’ll see that the mark he left on you is actually pretty shallow for a bite, which means the bite was done in retaliation or self-defense.”

Bede snorts.  **_Obviously. She was about to fucking kill me._ **

Hop doesn’t look up at both Victor and Gloria as he rummages around his bag with one hand for a bandaid. “So wait, he  _ isn’t  _ your Espurr then? Neither of you own this Espurr or caught it?”

“Pretty sure the only shiny Pokemon we have are the Applin you gave us,” Victor muses, reviewing the Pokemon in his boxes with a few swipes of his finger. “... Yeah. They’re the only ones. Appleoosa and… uhhh.”

“Fritter.”

“Right, Fritter…”

“So if this little guy is neither of yours…” Hop delicately puts ointment on the bite before plastering the band aid on the bite with care. Once that’s done, he turns to Bede. “Then what’s he doing all the way out here? Espurr aren’t native to the Weald, unless they’ve begun to move here.”

Bede frowns, irritatedly scrabbling at his cheeks with his tiny paws. **_“I’m telling you, it’s me, Bede!”_** \- but all the others hear is a petulant-sounding “Purrurr espurr, es purrrruurr.”

“Did you get lost, little guy?” Hop asks gently, not daring to place any of limbs too close to him in case he suffered the same fate as Gloria. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

**_“I’m trying to say I’m Bede!”_ **

“Must be super lost, if the guy’s this deep in the northern section of the Weald…” Victor mutters.

Hop perks up. “Speaking of which, where’s Bede? He should’ve been back by now.”

**_“I’m right HERE!”_ ** “Espurr, espurr!”

“That’s the thing, we couldn’t find him here anywhere,” Victor explains as Gloria makes to stand up, brushing the leaves and dirt off of her clothes. She signals that she’s going to do another look around before disappearing into the undergrowth, presumably still looking for Bede. “We went here looking for him when we found this guy over here with this killer wound on his leg, and then he bit Gloria.”

Hop made a clicking sound of pity before holding out a hand to Bede. “Come on, little guy. If you’re not anybody’s Pokemon, that means I can’t really recall you into a Pokeball.”

“You could catch him?” Victor suggests.

Hop shakes his head. “As nice as it would be to catch this little guy-” He nods to himself at the horror-filled look that briefly passes the Espurr’s face. “I don’t think he wants to come home with me like that. He’s probably just lost his way, or got carried here by Corviknight or Weezing instead of what they usually eat for dinner.”

**_Good fucking lord, that’s a terrifying thought,_ ** Bede worries to himself. Spirited away by a Corviknight or a Weezing to be eaten by Koffing or Rookidee they spawned themselves in the wild? No fucking thank you. Bede would rather his limbs all be intact and his entire being kept together, thanks.

Speaking of limbs… the stupid Stunfisk’s bite wound was still on his leg. And it still, for some godforsaken reason, hurt like a  _ bitch _ .  **_I can’t exactly run around trying to convince people I’m, well, ME, like this… unless…_ **

Bede looks up at Hop, and then at Victor, before groaning internally to himself at what he was about to do.  **_For fuck’s sakes. The things I do to get out of bullshit_ ** .

“Purrrr…”

Bede makes what he _hopes_ is a pitiful whimper, one that both Victor and Hop immediately zone in on. Hop’s eyes then zero back in on the wound, and he slaps his forehead in disgust at himself. “Ugh! Sorry, mate, I forgot about your little wound there! Let me just- oh, thank you Vic-” At Victor holding out the bandages, Hop nods gratefully before reaching over to Bede. “Don’t worry little Espurr. It’s just me, future Professor Hop! I’m going to help you out, but only if you stay still for me, okay?”

“Esurrrr purrurr es…”  **_“Just please get it over with before I end up dying of humiliation.”_ **

Surprisingly, with quick maneuvering and deft fingerwork, Bede soon finds that his tiny right leg is all bandaged up, though rather stiff due to the amount of layers. Tentatively he wiggles his right leg as Hop leans back, satisfied with his handiwork, before Bede attempts to get on his feet-

\- only to fall flat on his face.

**_Mortifying. Now I have to learn how to walk as well._ **

“Whoa- hey- no walking for you, little Espurr. Not on  _ that  _ leg for a long time, at least!”  **_What the-!_ ** “Upsy-daisy!”

Bede feels hands on either side of his tiny body, and suddenly gravity didn’t exist.

“H-hey- hey, stop it, quit moving little guy- hey!” Hop struggles as the Espurr wriggles around in his hold, trying to escape. “Vic, you hold him! I don’t think he likes me!”

“WHAT-?!” And suddenly he’s in  _ Victor’s  _ hold now, okay, first of all  _ wow,  _ second of all  _ WOW?  _ “Hop, nooooo, you’re the professor-”

“And you’re the champion! You can handle a shiny Espurr!”

“SO CAN YOU!”

“PURRURRR ESPURR ESPURR ESPURRRRR-”  **_“SOMEBODY PLEASE PUT ME DOWN PLEASE THE FLOOR IS TOO FAR AWAY-”_ **

_ “OI! VIC! HOP!” _

The three boys all stop at Gloria’s yell, looking over as the girl stumbles back towards them, a branch in her hair and her socks and shoes smeared with dirt. But that’s not what they pay attention to - it’s the look on her face that makes them all pause. There is a panic in her eyes uncharacteristic of her usually boisterous, fiery personality - one that makes both Hop and Victor grow quiet.

“Think ah foun’ Bede. Or…”

“Or?” Hop asks cautiously.

“... Or... wha’s lef’ o’ him, anyway.”

Bede goes still in Victor’s arms.

* * *

“This is all you could find of him?”

“Righ’ here. Looked all ‘round the place too - didnae see anythin’.”

Hop frowns, picking up the discarded Rotom phone.and switching it on. The moment the Rotom woke up it buzzed in greeting to Hop, who asked it, “Rotom, where’s Bede?”

_ “Bzzzt! He is not here!” _

“Well,  _ duh _ ,” Gloria snips. Victor elbows her before gesturing for Hop to ask again, adjusting his hold on Bede the Espurr. Bede, on his end, didn’t even bother to struggle anymore in his arms save for a brief readjusting in position; he was far too transfixed on how the notes he’d taken down were all scattered on the forest floor, a single Pokeball that was most likely Sylvie’s in the midst of all the mess.

Hop’s brows furrow considerably. “Well, he’s not here, I know that much. Do you know where he is, Rotom?”

_ “I went to sleep after my hard drive was filled! He then pocketed me and allowed me to rest, bzzt.” _

“That’s no help…” Victor murmurs.

Hop, not really one to give up immediately, goes over to pick up the Pokeball and release the Pokemon inside it. In a flash of light, Sylvie’s sleeping form appears on the ground, and with a yawn and a stretch she scratches the back of her ear with her hind leg before smiling up at the three Postwick residents. “Sylveoooon.”

“Tha’s Sylvie…” Gloria crouches down to give Sylvie a well-meaning scratch behind the ear, the Sylveon purring in contentment. Victor, taking initiative, goes to look around the current section of the Weald they were in as Gloria asks the Eeveelution, “Ya wouldnae happen ta know where yer Trainer’s gone, eh, Sylvie?”

“Sylveon?” Sylvie cocks her head curiously before nuzzling into her hand, begging for more scritches.

Hop sighs, moving to pick up the notes scattered all around them. “Guess not… where could he be, though? He couldn’t have gone far if Sylvie’s here.”

“WAAAUUGH!”

“ESPURRR!”

“Victor?!” Both Hop and Gloria rush over to where they heard Victor’s voice, only to hear a muffled “I’m okay!” come from behind a tree. Running closer, they eventually find Victor, the Espurr still in his arms…

… and the both of them, dangling over a steep hillside by the strap of Victor’s bag, hanging from a protruding branch.

“Are you two okay?!” Hop asks in a panic, looking over and down at them from where Victor and Bede had fallen. “Gloria, help me out here, mate!”

“Alrea’y on it!” Gloria latches her heel into the roots of the tree closest to the edge before gesturing for Hop to hang on to her legs, which he does. With his arms securely around her legs and his stance squared on the ground, Gloria begins to lean over the edge and reach for Victor’s collar.

The branch Victor and Bede hang from creaks slightly, and Bede swears up a storm. However, to Victor all he hears is what he  _ thinks  _ is panicked chattering from the Espurr. Despite the situation he reassures, “It’s going to be okay, Espurr, I promise! See, look, Gloria’s already reaching out for us! Hold on tightly to me now-” He shifts Bede’s weight into one arm as he makes to reach out to Gloria’s outstretched arm.

“Put yer back into it, Victor!” Gloria hollers, straining to reach him.

Victor calls back, “I’m  _ trying-  _ **_tryiiiiiiing-_ ** gotcha!”

Their hands meet.

“Now, Hop!” Gloria shouts.

With a loud grunt, Hop - and a little help from Sylvie, who had finally caught on to the situation and was now tugging on the back of his coat - pulls Gloria by the legs, and then by the waist, until finally all four are sent tumbling back onto the ground of the Weald, gasping for air. Victor’s bag’s contents go flying and scatter across the grassy floor, but before any wild Pokemon can get to them Sylvie manages to round them up into one neat little pile, purring in a way that indicated she was quite pleased with herself.

Hop wheezes from underneath the pile, arms and legs splayed out, Pokeballs scattered all around him. “Might I suggest looking where you’re going next time, mate?”

“You’re one to talk,” Victor groans, releasing Gloria’s hand and sitting up before checking the Espurr in his arms for injuries beyond the ones he’d already sustained. “... Well. At least the Espurr’s alright. You’re okay, right?”

“Espurr.”

“Cannae say th’ same for Bede, though,” Gloria murmurs morosely, moving to stand up.

A heavy silence fills the air at her words, and Hop swallows, sitting up and reattaching his Pokeballs to his belt and adjusting the strap of his bag. As Gloria goes to help Victor with his things, Hop breathes out sharply through his nose and says, “It’s going to get dark soon. We need to get out of the Weald, and fast.”

“But what about Bede?” Victor asks. Bede, in his arms, voicelessly asks the same thing.  _ What about me? _

There is a pained look on his face that reminds them all of Leon for the briefest of moments before he covers it up with his trademark smile. “We won’t be able to find him in the dark, mate. We should all get home first, get some rest, and look for him when it’s daylight again.”

“Are you sure?” Victor presses, frowning. Bede’s claws sink into Victor’s arms as the realization that they wouldn’t be looking for him dawns on him. “What if… what if he’s here all night? What if he’s really…” He lets it go unsaid.

“No way. Bede’s strong; he can protect himself.”

Gloria tosses Sylvie’s Pokeball between her hands. “... Without Sylvie?”

“... Okay. Okay, maybe he just dropped her. By accident. Maybe a big Pokemon chased him out of the Weald. Maybe he’s actually outside right now wondering where the fuck we all are!” Hop’s grip on his bag strap tightens before he sighs again - heavier this time. “I just… I don’t want to think the worst, okay? Bede’s strong. He can’t be… can’t be…”

The implication hangs in the air, and continues to hang in the air as the three leave the Weald, the thought that Bede could possibly be dead and the thought that they were possibly leaving him heavy in their hearts.

And through all this time, Bede is mostly silent, too numb to do much more than cling to Victor.

* * *

**Today 7:45pm**

**hangrymode**

so i was thinking… maybe we could all go together to the ballonlea annual play this year?

the past two years bede and i weren’t really able to because we were still getting used to being gym leaders.

which is ironic if you think about it, because bede already lives in ballonlea yet wasn’t able to attend the play.

wait.

he was in the play, wasn’t he?

never mind what i said then.

**Today 8:45pm**

**hangrymode**

but that’s it.

can we attend the play altogether this year?

@vibecheckerene if you’re performing, maybe we can get… i don’t know… really nice seats?

not that you have to. it’s just a nice thought and we’d get to see you up on stage.

i’d get to see you.

i’ve never seen you perform on stage before so i’m mighty curious, really.

**hangrymode**

where IS everyone?

this is really odd...

**Today 8:55pm**

**postwick roads**

mARNIEEEEEEEEEE

IM SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

**hangrymode**

there’s gloria.

and where gloria is...

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

marnie we beg your forgiveness

***eternatus screeching***

marnie,,,,,,, am jus a creacher,,,,, please forgiv

**hangrymode**

the other two are sure to follow.

hello gloria hop victor.

i won’t lie to you, mate - i’m not used to not seeing you all constantly on your phones.

i thought i’d get a response much faster.

**postwick roads**

in our defense we were in the weald today

**hangrymode**

really?

what for?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

sonia sent me out today on a field assignment regarding butterfree and corviknight

**hangrymode**

and you invited gloria and victor to join you?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

nah mate

they just followed me like a buncha morpeko after a gigantamax alcremie

or er

i guess like a buncha morpeko after an appletun??????

is that a better analogy????

**hangrymode**

yes.

so did you get anything done or?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

yes!!!!

lots of work actually since i split the work with glo vic and

,

**hangrymode**

and?

***eternatus screeching***

bede

**hangrymode**

speaking of bede, where is he?

i’m still wondering if we can… get really good seats for the play if ever.

unless opal made him go to bed early?

does he. do that?

**postwick roads**

the feck you think he is

fifteen and baby

?

***eternatus screeching***

bede and baby have the same amount of letters

beby

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

BEBY

**hangrymode**

i think he’s mysteriously absent from this conversation when he’s normally telling all of you to go to bed before he does.

and then he stays up two hours afterwards doing zacian knows what.

***eternatus screeching***

how do you know all this,,,,,,, marnie omg,,,,

**hangrymode**

who else do you think stays up late at night when the children have gone to bed

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

you talk like you’re not around the same age as us!!!

**hangrymode**

i’m not.

i’m almost nineteen, remember?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

RIGHT YOURE OLD

**hangrymode**

i am a corviknight taxi away from socking you where the sun don’t shine hop!

***eternatus screeching***

omg marnie used an exclamation point

**postwick roads**

HOP’S FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECKED IN THE AAAAAAARSEEEEEE

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

SHUT

**hangrymode**

alright, seriously though.

he would’ve usually responded by now.

what have you done with him.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

WE DIDNT DO ANYTHING

**hangrymode**

i’m joking.

**postwick roads**

better not tell her we lost him

**hangrymode**

oh my god you lost the beby.

***eternatus screeching***

oh my god she said BEBY

my legacy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, snof,,,,,,,,,,,,

snif*

**postwick roads**

snof

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

snof

***eternatus screeching***

you are all uninvited to my next birthday

except you marnie

**hangrymode**

snof.

***eternatus screeching***

i take it back

**hangrymode**

seriously. seriously seriously.

what do you mean you lost bede?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

we split up in the weald

**hangrymode**

already you have made a mistake.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

who died and made you the snark machine of the chat????

**postwick roads**

bede

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

DONT JOKE ABOUT THAT GLO

***eternatus screeching***

no no shes got a point bedes usually the snarker and now marnies doing it since hes gone

what have we done weve made a monster

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

mate he is NOT gone we just left him in the weald

**hangrymode**

you left him. in the weald.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

i just made things a lot worse didn’t i

**postwick roads**

yeah

***eternatus screeching***

mhm

**hangrymode**

i know he used to be a jerk, but this isn’t like you, hop.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

NO YOU MISUNDERSTAND

IT WAS GETTING DARK

we split up to cover all four corners of the weald and bede took the north

***eternatus screeching***

we went to the weald entrance to meet up but we didnt see him so me and gloria went back in to look for him

we only found like… sylvie

**hangrymode**

his sylveon

***eternatus screeching***

his sylveo

h

how did you know?

**hangrymode**

you mean you didn’t?

***eternatus screeching***

WELL NO THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT

Anyway

we found sylvies pokeball, and the notes bede had gathered, and the rotomphone

but not bede

so

**postwick roads**

worst case scenario hes feckin dead

best case scenario hes stuck in a tree somewhere and we just missed him and hes gonna cuss us out tomorrow for leaving him in the weald all night

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

GREAT now i feel extra terrible for my decision

**hangrymode**

what did you tell opal?

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

about that

**hangrymode**

you didn’t tell opal.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

WHAT PSHHHH OF COURSE WE DID

**hangrymode**

you didn’t breathe a single word of it to opal

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

PFFFT NAHHHH COURSE WE DIDNT DO THAT

NAHHHH   
N

yeah

**hangrymode**

hop.

**postwick roads**

hop off his knob marnie we all made the decision to put off the search for tomorrow

even though were all worried sick

if we got lost youd be the one looking for all four of us and that aint gonna be fun 

***eternatus screeching***

well on the plus side we found a shiny pokemon!

**hangrymode**

really?

***eternatus screeching***

yeah - hes injured though

got a nasty one on his leg

**hangrymode**

poor thing…

can i see him?

***eternatus screeching***

<shinespurr.jpg>

**hangrymode**

he’s adorable… almost like my morpeko.

maybe you guys should bring him over to spikemuth sometime.

**postwick roads**

y????

**hangrymode**

i mean… i’m assuming you’re all on your way to tell opal about bede, and we’re on opposing ends of the routes.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

HE ISNT DEAD

**postwick roads**

we hope

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

HE ISNT!!!!!

***eternatus screeching***

were gonna try and look for him tomorrow morning

you wanna uh

come over and help marnie?

**hangrymode**

is morpeko my favorite pokemon?

***eternatus screeching***

uh

**hangrymode**

yes i’m coming over.

i’ll just let piers and team yell know that i’m heading over to postwick to talk with all of you.

***eternatus screeching***

not gonna tell them that youre heading into the weald too??

**hangrymode**

i’ll tell piers that.

if i told team yell that they’d cause too much noise in the weald and disturb the wildlife even when they’re trying to do the opposite.

they really mean well, but…

**postwick roads**

we getcha dw

what time you headin over

**hangrymode**

before lunch?

i want to meet the espurr you found. or captured.

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

definitely still a wild espurr

we didnt catch him or anything

**hangrymode**

really?

i’ll be extra careful then.

i just want to see him in person. maybe he’ll get along with my morpeko.

see you guys then.

**postwick roads**

byeEEEE MARNIEEEEE

**hop skip and a bang bang bang**

goodnight marnie!!!!

***eternatus screeching***

goodnight marn!!!

* * *

“Well… there’s that, I guess.”

Gloria groans, hugging a pillow to her chest as she lolls over the side of her bed. On the floor of her bedroom on the same mattress are Hop and Victor, their backs pressed against the side of her bed as she looks over their shoulders. “Now I cannae stop thinkin’ ‘bou’ whe’er or no’ Bede’s really dead.”

“He is  _ not, _ ” Hop insists, turning off his phone and chucking it at his mattress. “He’s  _ fine _ … right?” He looks at both Gloria and Victor, who only look at each other before looking back at him uncertainly. With a groan, he flops over and stretches out over the two mattresses on the floor before looking ahead and seeing the shiny Espurr they’d picked up trying to waddle across Gloria’s bedroom floor. “You agree with me, don’t you?”

Bede looks up at him, and looks back down at his feet. “Espurr. Purrurr es purrurr. Purrurr rruurrurr es.”  **_I mean. If me being an Espurr and relearning how to walk is considered fine, SURE, I GUESS._ **

“Does it still hurt?” Victor shifts, reaching over for his bag. “We can replace the bandages before we go to bed if you want. Does that sound good?”

“... Purrurr.”  **_… Yeah._ **

“I think that’s a yes, Vic,” Hop pretends to translate.

With a laugh, Victor leans over to gingerly pick up Bede before placing the Espurr on top of a stack of pillows, going to unwind the bandages before wrapping him up in new ones. All the while, Bede is unusually silent, just watching and flexing his now tiny fingers- paws-  _ whatever _ , as Victor comments, “You’re awfully quiet now, aren’t you? Realized you could trust us?”

“Es purr espurr.”  **_I trust you guys more than anyone else, unfortunately._ **

And it was true; he was really,  _ really  _ quite relieved that he hadn’t been found by anyone else other than Victor and Gloria and Hop in the Weald. While he still didn’t know what he’d do to tell them it was, well,  _ him,  _ he at least could rest assured that they’d be kind to him and treat him well like they did their Pokemon.

Unlike some other Trainers…

Bede shudders at the thought just as Victor applies ointment. Mistaking it for a pain reaction, he asks, “Oh! Does that hurt?”

“Espurr,” Bede shakes his head, and makes a gesture for him to continue. “Purrurr espurr.”  **_Go ahead._ **

Silence.

Bede looks up at Victor, and freezes when he sees that Victor, Hop, and Gloria are all staring at him in wonderment. “Purrurr?”  **_Did I say something wrong?_ **

“Tha’ Espurr really be actin’ like a human, huh?” Gloria stage whispers dramatically to the two boys. “‘Cause ah’m pre’ey sure Espurr dinnae jus’... do  _ tha _ .”

**_Do what?! What did I do?!_ ** Bede panics internally before a lightbulb appears over his head. Immediately, he makes to stand up, thinking,  **_Wait- wait, this is a PERFECT opportunity to try and convince them I’m not really an Espurr! I have to- OW!_ ** “PURR!”

“Oh no, Espurr!” Victor mourns the bandages he’d been carefully wrapping around Bede’s leg before grabbing him and firmly sitting him back on the pillow stack. “Seriously, you ruined the bandaging! Please stay still.”

Bede crosses his arms - or at least tries to. Gloria coos at the sight. “Aww. The wee laddie’s impatient. Betta hurry it up, Victor. Almost lights out, anyway.”

“I would’ve been done if he didn’t- hey!” Bede knocks Victor’s hand out of the way before grabbing the roll of bandages and trying to wound it around his own leg, only to fail miserably as the roll bounces out of his hands and lands on Hop’s lap. “What was that for?!”

“Purrururr. Espurr espurrr.”  **_I was TRYING to make things go faster._ **

Hop laughs and ruffles Bede’s head fur, making the boy-turned-Espurr hiss and attempt to claw at him, but unfortunately for him Hop is too fast as he withdraws his hand immediately. “Looks like the little guy’s cranky. We really should get some sleep, and then look for Bede tomorrow, okay?”

“Wha’ abou’ ‘im?” Gloria gestures to the Espurr, who stares unblinkingly up at Hop. “And Marnie? She’s comin’ over tomorrow, ain’t she?”

“ESPURR?!”  **_MARNIE?!_ ** Since  _ when  _ was Marnie heading over to Postwick? Why didn’t anyone tell him these things?!

**_Wait. You idiot. You’re an Espurr right now. Of course they wouldn’t tell you these things._ **

Hop whistles at Bede’s surprised cry. “He sure got excited when he heard Marnie’s name.” Pause. “HEY, I JUST GOT A  _ GREAT  _ IDEA!”

**_Oh boy._ **

“Go on,” Victor says cautiously as he ties off the bandages on Bede’s leg. “And there you go, little Espurr! Good as new!”

Hop punches his open palm with a fist, grinning. “Since Marnie’s here tomorrow, and she said she really wanted to see the Espurr-”  **_She did? Seriously, when did all this happen? Where was I?!_ ** “Then what if we left Espurr with Marnie while we went looking around the Weald?”

Silence again.

“... A’right, Hop, ah know that yer a bril’iant scientist assistant an’ all, but why dae feck would we leave this wild shiny Espurr with Marnie?”

“Because we’d be the best suited to look around the Weald since we were with Bede yesterday!” Hop snaps his fingers. “We remember what he was wearing and all that - Marnie doesn’t. And someone still needs to watch this Espurr, you know? Easy fix! And she gets to spend time with the Espurr!”

**_"That's lovely and all, but since when was Marnie coming to Postwick?"_** Bede asks. His question goes ignored as expected, considering that none of them understand him, but he's irritated anyway. **_"Hey! When did she say she was coming over to Postwick!"_**

"Aww, he's excited," Gloria laughs, flicking one of Bede's folded ears much to his surprise. The Espurr hisses at her as he gingerly tries to bend his head down to reach for his "violated" ear as Gloria says, "Yeah, okay, maybe Marnie'll be okay wi' takin' care o' Espurr here."

Victor scratches his cheek awkwardly. “Maybe we should call this Espurr something that isn’t just… Espurr, you know? It’s kind of weird to just keep calling it Espurr.”

“Bu’ tha’s wha’ i’ is, Vic,” Gloria looks over at the Espurr again before favoring her bitten hand, wary of getting bitten again. Once Bede looks up again, she sticks her tongue out at him, and Bede, impulsively, does the same. “Oi, lookit the li’l spitfire. Stickin’ his li’l tongue back a’ me. Ah bet Marnie’ll getta kick outta takin’ care o’ him.”

“I still don’t know…” Victor murmurs uncertainly. “You really think she’ll agree?”

“She will, once we tell her what we’ve nicknamed this Espurr,” Hop promises.

Victor and Gloria look over at Hop. Bede freezes for the umpteenth time in their presence. All three of them share one thought:  _ what could he have possibly decided on a name for this Espurr/me? _

“... Hop…”

“Yes, Glo?”

“Did you think o’ a name for this Espurr?”

“Just now, yes!” Hop smiles, pleased with himself. “You wanna hear my suggestion?”

Victor hums noncommittally. “... Maybe.”

Hop, with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, gingerly picks up Bede from the pillow stack and turns around, holding him up to Bede and Gloria like he’s a fruit and Hop’s the Passimian holding him.

“Because of the circumstances from which he was found… from this day forth, we shall call this Espurr…” Hop pauses for dramatic effect. “Beet!”

Silence.

Bede wriggles and turns around in his hold, rears his head back, and chomps on his arm in response.

He ends up spending the night on a large pillow with as much distance from Hop as possible as Gloria and Victor tend to the scientist.


	3. Postwick Roads Take Me Home

**CHAPTER 3: POSTWICK ROADS TAKE ME HOME**

* * *

When Marnie arrives on Gloria’s doorstep that morning, Bede is unprepared.

Or rather, he did not expect to see Marnie’s face hovering over his so early in the morning - what time was it? 7AM? Why was she in Ballonlea? In his house? And _in his room?_ Did Opal let her in? What in the damned-

Predictably, in his surprise he falls out of his- _pillow?_

**_A pillow?_ ** Bede looks back at the pillow he’d fallen from, and then at his hands, and then he remembers. **_… Right. I’m an Espurr. A shiny Espurr. That Hop decided to call, of all things, BEET. And I’m not in Ballonlea - I’m in Postwick with the three people who last saw me before I ‘died’._ **

**_Urgh._ **

A soft snort interrupts his internal monologue, reminding him that he had a visitor. The Espurr blinks up at Marnie as she whispers “Sorry to wake you, little Espurr,” and the way she whispers makes Bede’s mental grousing grow quiet as he continues to stare at her, waiting for her explanation.

“Espurr?” He asks, and it doesn’t take a universal translator for Marnie to know that he’s questioning what she’s up to so early in the morning. In response her gaze darts to the side, and when he looks behind her he sees Hop, Victor, and Gloria all still asleep, all piled up and stretched out on the two mattresses laid out on the ground of Gloria’s bedroom.

Gloria, sometime during the night, had fallen off her bed and made her way over to snuggle up close to Hop and Victor, so now all three of them had their limbs splayed out over each other, their legs tangled in the blankets and their hair all over the place. The image is rather hilarious, actually - but Bede doesn’t dare laugh as Marnie quietly gestures for him to follow her - before pausing, gently slapping her cheeks as though to chastise herself, and then silently asking him if he’d let her carry him by holding her arms out.

Bede looks behind her at the snoozing trio again, and then at her, before deciding in that moment that Marnie is the lesser of four evils and carefully inching closer to her. At his admission, she lowers herself a little more in order for Bede to carefully climb into her hold, not even flinching as Bede’s claws dig slightly into her shirt for purchase.

**_She must be used to it,_ ** Bede realizes as Marnie gently carries him outside the bedroom so as not to disturb the sleeping Postwick natives. **_Carrying Pokemon like this… she must have done it a lot before. Her Pokemon… at least two or three of them have claws. And the Team Yell members and Piers have those Zigzagoon, Linoone, and Obstagoon..._ **

They pass Gloria’s mother, who waves at them cheerily by her place next to the stove before returning to her cooking, and carefully Marnie’s hold on Bede adjusts into a semi-cradle as she goes to open the front door, exiting the house. Once the door is shut behind them, she sighs in relief as she sits on the porch, moving both her hands and turning him around so that they can meet eye to eye.

“Hello there, Espurr,” Marnie greets again, properly this time. “I don’t know if the others already told you ‘bout me, but I’m one o’ their friends. I’m Marnie.”

“Espurr?” **_… Hi?_ **She had no idea that she was talking to someone who already knew her, but how could he tell her that? She wasn’t a Pokemon. He couldn’t communicate with her like this.

“Does the leg still hurt real bad?” Marnie lifts him up slightly to eye the bandages. “I only really saw your leg through a picture, so I dunno how bad it is.”

Bede tilts his head and tries to look at said injured leg, wiggling it a little. A jolt of pain races up his tiny body, and it must’ve shown on his face because Marnie winces in sympathy. “Ow. Guess so. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you out here.”

“Espurr es.” **_It’s fine._ **

Marnie carefully sets him down next to her - but not before placing her bag under him as a sort of cushion. It’s not her usual backpack - today it’s just a small black sack bag, rather discreet, but lined with ruffles that make Bede’s current seating arrangement rather comfy. For a bag, anyway. As he makes himself comfortable atop her bag Marnie reaches for one of the Pokeballs on her belt before calling out a Pokemon Bede was very familiar with.

“Peko!”

**_Morpeko._ **

Upon release, the little hamster-like Pokemon stretches her tiny limbs before bouncing up and down at the sight of Marnie, happily chattering in greeting-

\- only to pause in wonder at the sight of Bede, staring at her with unease. “Peko?” The Morpeko asks Marnie questioningly, turning to her Trainer with curiosity. Much to Bede’s surprise, the moment Morpeko speaks, he hears nothing _but_ a typical Morpeko’s voice. “Peko? Morpeko… morrru morpeko?”

**_Great. Not only can I not communicate with humans…_ ** Had he been human Bede would have already worried his lower lip with his teeth. **_But now I can’t understand Pokemon either. What the fuck is my life, even? Is there no mercy?_ **

“This is Espurr, Peko,” Marnie introduces, leaning back on the palms of her hands to allow Peko the Morpeko to scamper up onto her lap. Peko’s eyes do not leave Bede as Marnie pets Peko on the head gently. “And Espurr, this is my partner, Peko. She’s a real sweetheart.”

Bede had met Marnie’s Morpeko before, on the same day he’d met the rest of her team and the rest of everyone else’s main teams. Peko had been eager to crawl all over and examine everyone’s Pokemon teams, but had seemed to be most fond of Bede’s Hatterene and Rapidash, as well as Hop’s Dubwool, Victor’s Eldegoss, and Gloria’s Alcremie. His Hatterene, Hattie, hadn’t really taken kindly to the little hamster, and had consequently tried to float away whenever she drew near. It was impossible to avoid Peko, however - especially when she decided that Marnie’s Grimmsnarl would be a good steed.

“Espurr purrurr es purr es.” **_Nice to… meet you again?_ **

Peko cocks her head to the side at his words, and looks up at Marnie in confusion. Marnie looks down at her Morpeko before saying, "He don't bite, Peko. Don't worry."

Bede nearly chokes on the irony of her words. **_If only she knew how many people I've already bitten._ **The count being two so far, and in his opinion they more or less deserved it.

Still, he attempts to give Peko a smile - but he must have done something wrong, because the Morpeko yelps and tries to duck under Marnie's shirt at his smile. At the sight of such a cute Pokemon terrified of his smile, Bede frowns - but his frown is not alone.

Marnie too is frowning at her partner, fishing the hamster out from under her shirt. "Peko! That's rude! He's just givin' you a smile!"

"Peko! Moru mor morpeko!" Peko protests, reaching into a fur pocket and pulling out a seed to nibble on in her panic.

As Marnie tries to calm her down, Bede settles back on her bag, face dropping back into the typical Espurr frown as he squishes his cheeks with his paws petulantly. Peko’s reaction bothered him; she didn’t react like that to him as a human. **_Is it because I’m an Espurr now? Why is literally every single one of my present problems the result of me suddenly being small and furry?!_ **

He could only imagine the thoughts in Peko's brain at that moment about him - his best guess currently being ' _scary Espurr! Scary man! Please take me home!'_

(It was actually something more along the lines of 'I've seen that smile before Marnie! I know that smile, I know it!', but neither Bede nor Marnie would ever know that.)

"Sorry about that, Espurr," Marnie apologizes as she recalls her beloved partner back into her ball. As she tucks Peko's ball back on her belt, she wonders out loud, "Peko's never reacted like that to anyone before. Not even Bede, an' with all due respect, Bede is intimidatin' in his own right."

Bede gives her an odd look. "Espurr?" **_Excuse me?_ **

"Oh, I don't really mean anythin' by that," Marnie clarifies, mistaking the Espurr's look as confusion. "Bede is intimidatin', but that's a fact of life, y'know? He's Opal's successor to Ballonlea gym, so he’s got to possess some level of intimidatin’ to him.”

The human-turned-Espurr blinks. Well. Opal _was_ terrifying in her own right, he’d admit - you don’t just thunder over to a young boy without warning and shriek ‘pink’ like it’s the end all be all to all colors before declaring that he was being extended the opportunity to be your successor and then hauling him off. To know that Marnie found him intimidating though… he wasn’t sure if he was flattered or not.

He settles for somewhere in the middle, and then promptly sneezes when a bit of Wooloo fluff from the nearby fields passes by his nose.

Marnie’s gaze softens, and had Bede been presently human his cheeks would have turned red in embarrassment at her look, unused to seeing such a look cross her face when she looked at him. Sure, he was an Espurr right now, but he was still _Bede_. And Marnie didn’t look at Bede like that.

“You really are cute…” Marnie comments, a hand reaching out to pet Bede on the head. Instinct tells Bede to bite her hand before she even gets anywhere near the fluff on his head - but he forces himself to stay still as she gently pets him on the head, her touch light as a feather. “Too bad you’re a wild Pokemon. If Hop won’t catch you, there mus’ be a good reason why.”

**_Yeah. The reason’s because I’m NOT a Pokemon._ **But his mental reply is, intentionally, unheard. Saying it out loud wouldn’t even matter anyway if she didn’t understand him.

“Feckin’ ‘ell. Ye bite Hop afta he gives ye a name, ye bite me for tryna help ye, but when Marnie goes all in an’ pets ye _once_ yer all gooey? Disgosteng.”

Bede’s body stiffens under Marnie’s touch.

The Three Idiots were awake.

Marnie gives them a reserved smile as she greets, “Good morning.”

“I know you said you’d be here before lunch, but I didn’t expect you to be-” Victor interrupts himself with a yawn and a stretch before continuing. “- _raaaaaaagh oh man that stretch felt good…_ I mean, I didn’t expect you to be _this_ early.”

Marnie chuckles quietly. “Guess I was just excited to meet Espurr.”

“Speakin’ o’ which, whatcha think o’ ‘im?” Gloria plops herself down next to Marnie in nothing but her pajamas as she makes a face at Bede. Bede promptly bares his teeth right back at her, and at his action Gloria points out, “See? He’s a li’l spitfire covered in pink fur an’ sparkles. Feral, wi’out a doubt.”

Victor, leaning over Marnie, makes a low whistle. “Well… he sure doesn’t seem like a spitfire right now. Seems he’s been behaving around Marnie specifically.”

“Told you it would be a good idea to leave him with Marnie,” Hop says proudly.

Big mistake.

Marnie immediately tilts her face to look up at him, and Bede makes a point to try and not burst into laughter at how pale Hop’s face has suddenly gotten at Marnie’s impassive stare. “What do you mean, ‘leave him with Marnie’? What’re you up to again, Hop?”

“We-ell… I was thinking, mate,” Hop begins, pacing around behind her. Marnie twists herself around so she can witness the violet-haired boy nearly wear a hole into Gloria’s front porch with his walking alone. “That Beet here can’t go far-”

“Beet?” Was she fucking _laughing?_ **_She is NOT, she is NOT LAUGHING- oh for fuck’s sakes. She is._ ** There’s no mistaking the shudder in her shoulders - she’s trying not to laugh as hard as she can. **_Hop, when I get opposable thumbs back, I am going to steal yours in your sleep, mark my fucking words._ **

Hop beams “Like it? We-”

“ _He,_ ” both Gloria and Victor chorus in correction.

“ _We,”_ Hop repeats. “Gave him this nickname in honor of the circumstances in which he was found, which is the same day we lost Bede. Kind of funny and ironic, really, considering that Espurr here looks a lot like him. And vice versa.”

**_Touch me again and you’re not getting your arm back, Hop,_ **Bede warns, but to the humans it only sounds like Espurr’s gently chastising him.

“Doesn’t look like he likes the name,” Marnie observes. “You shouldn’t’ve assigned a wild Pokemon a nickname in the first place, though. Not unless you capture them.”

“Espurr. Purrurr espurr.” **_She’s right. Mainly because I already have a name in the first place._ **

Victor cradles his cheek thoughtfully with a hand. “He’s really taken to Marnie. Look at him, agreeing with her every word. Marnie, what magics have you cast upon our little Espurr here? Are you secretly a…” And here his voice lowers. “A _faerie?_ ”

“A _faerie?_ ” Marnie raises an eyebrow.

Gloria snorts. “Bede talked aboot faeries in the Glimwood Tangle ‘fore he up and feckin’ went poof. Now Victor and Hop think they’re real an’ shite.”

“Well, you never know,” Marnie reasons. “I mean. Miss Opal’s got that whole stat lowering and raisin’ gimmick in the gym challenge, don’t she?”

“Now that you mention it…”

As Marnie and Gloria discuss whether or not faeries are real, Bede looks around again, electing to take in the view of his surroundings. He never wandered into Postwick for too long, even whenever he had the time. It was always busy, busy, busy with him as Opal’s successor - and he was pretty sure Marnie had her hands full that time too, being her brother’s successor in turn. Now that he was a Pokemon, however…

Postwick was nothing like Ballonlea or the Tangle. Where Ballonlea was lit by the soft glow of mushrooms and Fairy Pokemon and the Tangle was shrouded in darkness while tickled with mushroom lights, Postwick was bathed in the sunlight and rolling fields of green and yellow. From where he was seated atop Marnie’s bag, Bede could see the Wooloo rolling around in the grass and ramming into each other, and a few Rookidee flapping around in the tall grass closest to Gloria’s house. In the distance, Bede could see Wedgehurst station’s clock tower chime at the strike of 8, and if he looked hard enough he could make out the sight of the train coming in for another round trip.

Postwick was no Ballonlea, but Bede could at least admit that he appreciated its homey, old town aesthetics. At least, in his current situation, he could.

Unconsciously, a content purr rumbles at the base of his throat - one that is unfortunately loud enough for all four other people in the vicinity to hear. At the sound, Gloria all but melts and reaches out for him again, delighted by the cuteness of him purring-

\- only to get her hand chomped again for her efforts when it gets within range of him yet again.

“If ye have rabies ah’m kickin’ yer arse to Kanto, y’hear me, you sparkly pink bitch?” Gloria snarls, favoring her injured hand. “ **_KANTO!_ **”

**_You should thank me,_ ** Bede practically purrs, which is ironic given that purring was what landed Gloria in this situation in the first place. **_Now both your hands have wounds and they match._ **

“Ah dunno wha’ you jus’ said, but ah’m bettin’ tha’ you ain’t jus’ a wee bit sorry a’ all.”

**_Damn right I aren’t._ **

“Hey, _hey,_ ” And suddenly Bede’s being lifted up again without his consent, but this time it’s Marnie doing the lifting as she frowns at him. “Bitin’ people isn’t proper, Espurr. I know you’re wild, but that just isn’t proper.”

**_If you were in my situation you’d be inclined to bite everyone in range too._ **

“I _know_ Gloria’s a little spitfirey-”

“ _HEY!_ ”

“- but that’s no excuse to bite her.”

**_But-_ **

“I can hear the ‘but’ in that purr, Espurr,” Marnie warns. “Say sorry.”

**_She can’t even understand me!_ **

“ _Espurr._ ”

Bede wilfs in Marnie’s hold; with the way she was holding him up, he was currently at her mercy, and honestly? She was one of the few people he didn’t _dare_ bite to get his way or establish dominance with. Mainly because he’d always had the theory that Piers would somehow clock in on anything bad happening to Marnie no matter _where_ she was in Galar - or beyond.

He’d rather not get punted to the next region, thanks.

To Gloria, he grumbles, “Es purr,” as a half-assed apology, and to Hop he does the same, though albeit a lot less enthusiastically. He was still rather tetchy about being nicknamed Beet.

Hop beams though. “See? You’ve got him under control! That’s why I thought it’d be a good idea to leave him to you while we explored the Weald looking for Bede.”

“Can’t I help?” Marnie asks pointedly, lowering Bede back down, but not on her bag. Presently she’d lowered him into. “Four heads are better than three.”

Victor offers an Oran berry to Bede from above, the blue berry landing in Bede’s lap as he explains, “The line of thought here was that since we were the three who last saw Bede yesterday, we’d have the best chance of remembering how he looked like before we lost sight of him. And since you weren’t there, there’s a higher chance you’d get lost.” At Marnie’s incredulous stare, Victor tries to remedy, “Not that we’re saying you’re pants with directions! But maybe you could just cover the front part of the Weald if you really wanted to help…?”

“And Espurr?” Marnie asks flatly.

“He’s injured,” Hop holds out a hand, aiming it towards the injured leg to tell Bede that he’s just going to check on it. When Bede doesn’t make a move to bite him, he gingerly lifts the injured leg up to check on the bandages. “Since we found him deep in the Weald, far away from where Espurr should normally be, the Weald could be a source of terror for him if we ever brought him near it again.”

**_For once, he might have a point,_ ** Bede begrudgingly concedes, picking up the berry Victor had offered him and taking a tiny bite out of it. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back into the Weald at this rate - not after what had just happened. He still wasn’t sure _how_ the fuck he’d become an Espurr, but for once he was tired of questioning the bullshit that got slung at him left and right.

After all, he lived with the wizard of bullshit herself.

…

…

A lightbulb lights itself up above Bede’s head.

“Uh oh, he’s excited,” Gloria says sarcastically as Bede patters a free paw on Marnie’s jacket. “Y’better watch out, _y’better watch out,_ **_y’better watch out-_ **”

“What is it, Espurr?” Marnie asks, looking down at the Espurr in her lap. “What’s got you all riled up, huh?”

**_Opal! Opal will know what to do!_ ** Bede cries out, hoping to all hell that somehow they’d get the message just by listening to him babble in Espurrspeak. Or whatever the _fuck_ he was saying, because Pokemon didn’t seem to be able to understand him. **_We have to go to Opal!_ **

“Espurr! Es purr ruuruur Espurr ESPURR!”

“I have _no_ idea what he said,” Victor admits. “Sounds really urgent though.”

Bede, through sheer force of will, grabs the tufts of fur on the sides of his face in frustration and bonks his head on Marnie’s stomach repeatedly, screaming internally.

“Okay, yer all seein’ it too, aren’tcha?” Gloria points at the tiny Espurr doing a suspiciously human-like reaction to not being understood. “This Espurr is _really_ not actin’ like a normal Espurr.”

**_You fucking THINK?_ **Bede snarls at her sideways, pausing in his desolate head bashing to glare at her before returning to banging his head against the wall - the wall being Marnie, in this case. He’d have to apologize to her when he turned back.

_… IF he turned back._

Bede bangs his head harder.

Halfway through his seventieth or so headbang, Marnie catches his forehead with her palm to stop him from hurting himself as she asks him, “Espurr, don’t do that. You’re hurting yourself _and_ me by doin’ that, okay? Can you read English?”

“Espurr?” **_What?_ **

“Can you read English?” Marnie repeats patiently, sensing the confusion.

“... Espurr.” **_Yeah?_ **

“I can’t tell if that’s a _yes,_ or a _no,_ ” Victor squints.

The look that crosses Bede’s face speaks volumes of how dangerously close he is to bashing his head in in his frustration.

“Espurr, can you understand us then?” Marnie asks carefully.

“Espurr.” Bede accompanies his assent with a nod, just to make sure they didn’t mistake his message. **_Marnie’s getting way farther with this than the three dingdongs are altogether. Must be the shared braincell._ **

“Then… can you type?”

“Can he wot?” Gloria asks.

“Type,” Marnie reaches around Bede to grab the bag he’d been sitting on earlier to rummage around it before pulling out her Rotomphone. It occurs to everyone else that isn’t Marnie in that moment that Marnie indeed had the rest of the braincells in the friend group as she turns on her phone, because the thought of asking Espurr to type had completely left their mind. “I was wondering if Espurr could type out what he wanted to say instead.”

“Can Espurr recognize letters on a digital device as opposed to a physical device like a sign?” Hop wonders out loud as Marnie’s Rotomphone lowers itself over to Bede, still sitting on her lap and in awe at this chance to communicate at last.

Marnie gives him a dry look. “They’re Pokemon, not stupid. If they can read signs, they can prob’ly recognize letters on a phone.”

**_The question is, will Rotom let me type with these nub hands?_ **Bede stares at his paws before pressing the letter F.

The letter F appears on Rotom’s screen.

Bede’s eyes widen.

Immediately, he types the first word he thinks of.

“... Of all the things he knows how to spell, it’s _FUCK?_ ” Gloria howls with laughter. “So _this_ is what happens when you give Pokemon the ability to communicate with humans!”

Bede keysmashes. Gloria howls louder, and soon Hop’s giggling madly too at the situation. Victor is all but biting his lower lip off trying _not_ to laugh, and Marnie doesn’t even try to hide her snort as she gestures for Bede to continue. “Go on, Espurr. What were you saying earlier?”

“Espurr…” Bede turns back to the Rotomphone, and flexes his tiny paw fingers. Nubs. Stubs. Whatever.

The silence that follows the following words he types is deafening.

**_I really don’t appreciate being called Beet when my name is Bede, you know._ **

Bede leans back into Marnie, refusing to admit that she was a very, very comfy person to be sitting on, waiting for their response.

“Oh my god, this Espurr has the same name as Bede,” Has Hop finally connected the dots? Has he finally? Did Bede have hope in humanity after all? “ **_They’re soul partners! Bede and Bede!_ **”

He didn’t connect shit.

Bede scratches at his face and yowls in frustration.

Victor, however…

A strange look passes over Victor’s face as he looks between the Rotomphone and Bede. When Marnie, Gloria, Hop, and Bede all turn to look at him, they can see the Klink and Klang turning in his head, whirring faster and faster, until finally-

Victor’s pupils shrink considerably, and he points at Bede in horror.

“Bede,” his voice says shakily. “That’s Bede.”

“He did say his name was Bede, yeah?” Gloria stretches as she speaks.

“No, no no no, you don’t get it, Glo, that’s-” He gestures to the entirety of Bede. “ _That’s our Bede._ He’s not dead… we don’t have to go to the Weald again today, because _he’s right here_ on Marnie’s lap.”

Hop frowns. “What are you talking about, Vic?”

Marnie squints at him, and then looks at the Espurr on her lap, and then at the words he typed on the Rotomphone. Bede peers back up at her, and then turns back to the Rotomphone to type one more thing for her eyes only.

**_Sorry about Peko, Nie._ **

Marnie’s blood runs cold. _Only one person ever really called her Nie, and it was_ **_always_ ** _on rare occasions._ “Bede…?”

“Espurr.” **_About damn time._ **

Gloria and Hop stare at Victor’s wide eyed stare, and Marnie’s ashen face, and then look at Bede again one more time. Bede stares back, willing them to come to the same conclusion the other two did.

It hits them, eventually - after Marnie shakily reaches down and parts his fur in a way that resembles his normal human hairstyle.

All four of the humans scream when the realization hits big time.


	4. Wedgehurst

**CHAPTER 4: WEDGEHURST**

* * *

Predictably, the screaming calls out Gloria’s mother.

“Wha’s all the ruckus out here?” She frets, staring at all of them in turn. “It’s barely eigh’ in th’ mornin’, kids!”

Gloria, in a burst of inspiration, flashes her pearly whites at her mother. “Jus’ vocalizin’, Ma! Early mornin’ vocalizin’ helps th’ vocal cords, y’know?”

“... I’ sounded like someone died out here, Glory,” Her mother deadpans.

Bede  _ chrrs  _ with laughter as Gloria’s cheeks turn red. “ _ Ma!” _

“Jus’ messin’ wi’ ya, dear,” Her mother laughs before wagging her finger at them. “But no more screamin’ ou’ here at eigh’ in th’ mornin’. Don’ wanna be receivin’ any noise complaints by the neighbors or nothin’, y’know?”

Hop chuckles. “Not like Mum’s going to complain knowing I’m one of them.”

“Oh, you’d be s’prised, sweetheart,” Gloria’s mother winks before closing the door again, leaving them all back to whatever it was they were doing. What were they doing?

The humans all zero back in on Bede. Right. Bede.

Hop is the first to break the silence with his disbelief.

“You’re joking.”

“Espurr.”  **_No._ **

“ _ You’re serious?” _

“Espurr.”  **_Yes._ **

Hop holds up a finger to silence all of them before they can even speak. They all watch as he stomps down the steps, turns right into the Slumbering Weald, and disappears for a brief moment. After a few moments of silence, a shout rips through the air and terrifies a few Corvisquire into taking off -

\- and then Hop comes back from the Weald, calmer, taking a seat on the top step next to Gloria and Marnie. Victor’s lips press into a thin line as he picks up Marnie’s bag and puts  _ that  _ on his lap and crams himself next to Marnie, until finally all four of them are situated uncomfortably close to each other on the top step of the stairway to Gloria’s house.

For Bede, it wasn’t too much of a bother, given that he had his own comfortable place atop Marnie’s lap given that he was now presently of a smaller size and could now be placed atop  _ anyone’s  _ laps given the opportunity. But he  _ was  _ concerned about Marnie, who looked like she wanted nothing more than to bolt at how Gloria and Victor and Hop were sandwiching her.

So he tugs on the lapels of her jacket, trying to catch her attention, and Marnie’s gaze moves to focus on him - though the rest of her body doesn’t move. He points to a step two levels lower than where they currently are, and bounces on her lap the best he can.

She gets the message.

With a similar bounce, Marnie lets herself - and Bede - bounce two steps lower, making Victor and Gloria cozy up to each other instead and free up more space for them. The instant she’s free, Marnie lets out a sigh of barely disguised relief before turning back up to the other three, Bede still sitting on her lap.

“I guess we  _ were  _ kind of squished up here, huh?” Victor admits, smiling back down at Marnie with an awkward laugh. “Sorry.”

Marnie shakes her head. “It’s fine. That’s why we moved down here.”

“So you really are Bede, then?” Hop asks the Espurr on Marnie’s lap, folding his arms across his knees to support himself as he leans forward. “ _ Our  _ Bede?”

The Rotomphone lowers back to Bede’s face as he jots down a message and sends it over.

**_Once when you invited us to help you catch a swarm of Combee to lure out a Vespiquen you got stuck in a tree because the Vespiquen of their swarm fell in love with you and Gloria had to scare her off._ **

“That’s Bede alright,” Victor laughs as Hop turns a brilliant shade of red in his embarrassment. “He was pretty much the only one howling with laughter that day.”

Gloria cackles. “He wasnae the only one, mate! Tha’ was  _ hilarious! _ ”

“Can we please move on to a new topic other than me being chased by a Vespiquen?” Hop moans in agony, hands on his cheeks to try and stifle his embarrassed flush. It isn’t working. “Like, preferably, how this whole Espurr thing happened to Bede in the first place?”

Marnie frowns, looking back down at Bede. “And find out why his leg’s all jacked up, for one.”

**_That one’s easy. Stupid Stunfisk decided I was a chew toy._ **

As the Rotomphone circles around the humans to relay his answer, Victor clicks his tongue in sympathy. “Oh, I feel you. I almost got clamped by one in one of the Galar Mines while I wasn’t looking.”

“HOL’ ON A TICK!” Gloria shouts, startling them all into looking at her. She brandishes a finger at Bede in indignation. “THA’ MEANS YE  _ BIT  _ ME! WITH YER MOUTH!  **_TWICE!_ ** ”

Silence.

Marnie stifles a snort as Bede gives Gloria a very dismissive shrug the best he can. He doesn’t even gesture for the Rotomphone to relay a message - something that makes Gloria flare up even more.

“Oi,  _ beet _ , y’don’ get ta hide behind th’ cute Espurr mask any longer! Yer not  _ cute! Stop shruggin’ a’ me ya wanker! _ ”

“What are you talkin’ about?” Marnie ruffles Bede’s head fur again. “He  _ is  _ cute - he’s an Espurr. They’re by nature cute.”

Bede sticks out his tongue at Gloria as if to punctuate Marnie’s words. Gloria balls up her fists, but doesn’t dare lunge at Bede, now well aware that that was  _ Bede  _ and  _ not  _ a wild Pokemon at the receiving end of her fist. Especially knowing now that he could and  _ would  _ bite her hand given the opportunity.

“Stupi’ beet,” Gloria grumbles, crossing her arms. “Jus’ because Marnie le’s you be all cozy wi’ her on her  _ lap  _ o’ all things…”

“Hey, yeah, actually - Marnie, you realize that’s Bede on your lap, right?” Victor points out.

Marnie nods. Bede suddenly goes stiff, realizing what he was trying to imply.

“So… like… why isn’t he off your lap yet?”

Marnie looks down at Bede, who had gone unnaturally still and was giving Victor the yards-long trademarked Espurr stare, trying to get him to shut up. She looks back up at Victor. “Because he’s sittin’ on my lap?”

“... You’re just  _ letting  _ him?”

“He’s hurt,” is Marnie’s simple reply, as though it were the most obvious answer in the world. And to her, it just  _ was _ . “I’m not lettin’ him sit on the stone steps if he doesn’ have to. Besides, he’s my friend. He’s our friend.”

Had Bede been human, his cheeks would have flushed red, though whether or not it would be out of embarrassment or out of something else, he wouldn’t have known for sure. It was great to know that Marnie was actively trying to help ease his current predicament the way she knew how, but now he just felt too embarrassed to really sit there on her lap anymore now that they all knew it was him.

As Bede makes a move to climb down, Marnie stops him, an eyebrow raised. “And just where do you think you’re goin’?”

The Rotomphone hurriedly drops down in front of Bede as he patters out a response.  **_On the stairs where I am not inconveniencing you?_ **

“Bull,” Marnie picks him up and puts him back on her lap. “You’re gonna break your leg if you get off.”

**_What the fuck, Nie, that’s not how that works, my legs won’t snap off because I took ONE step on the ground._ **

In response, Marnie takes hold of one of Bede’s arms like one would a teddy bear, and waves it around.

**_You have made your point, but I refuse to accept it._ **

“Is Bede stuck to like, Marnie now then?” Hop asks, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Like, I know we basically said Marnie was going to babysit him when we didn’t know he was Bede yet and we were going to go look for Bede’s dead body, but is this really going to be how it works now? Bede and Marnie? Marnie and Bede?”

“You speak as though I have no say in the matter,” Marnie says dryly.

“Ye don’t when yer pettin’ the pink bastard like he’s yer Morpeko,” Gloria replies. “Look a’ wha’ ye didtae him, Marnie.”

Marnie looks. Bede looks right back at her.

“I see no difference.”

Victor coughs into his fist. His cough sounds oddly enough like he was saying,  _ “Bloke probably has a crush on you that’s why.”  _

**_Shut the fuck up, Victor,_ ** is Bede’s response on the Rotomphone.

“I didn’t say anything,” Victor holds his hands up, rolling his eyes. “You’re hearing things, little Bedespurr.”

Gloria lights up. “ _ Bedespurr. _ ”

**_Oh my God don’t call me that._ **

“Bedespurr,” Victor, Gloria, and Hop chorus loudly.

Bede looks up at Marnie from his seat on her lap. Considering that Marnie herself had said that it was alright for him to sit there, he was a little more comfortable now with the idea. He types a message.  **_Are you against me too?_ **

“I’ll still call you Bede if you want,” Marnie laughs. “But if I slip a few times, ‘msorry in advance.”

**_You are my only ally in this world we live in._ **

“You’re welcome.”

“Is this ‘ow Bede’s gonna communicate wi’ us from now on, then?” Gloria asks, Marnie’s Rotomphone patiently waiting to be called on again by Bede or Marnie. “Marnie’s Rotomphone? Or any Rotomphone, fo’ tha’ matter? Jus’- he’s jus’ gonna play a’ bein’ a mute Espurr now, istha’ it?”

Hop frowns. “I guess so. With us, anyway. To everyone else he can still speak like an Espurr, can’t you Bede?”

“Espurr. Espurr rururr, es purr es,” Bede responds vocally. Rotom floats back down to him as he translates through transcription,  **_To keep up the illusion that I’m just a normal Shiny Espurr, sure._ ** He taps his chin thoughtfully with a paw before adding,  **_Speaking of which, we should go to Opal._ **

Rotom passes Marnie’s gaze first, and she nods at the messages. “He’s right.”

“Right about what?” Victor asks.

“We should go to Opal as soon as we can,” Marnie’s arm goes under Bede’s tiny stub arms while the other arm goes to support him from underneath before standing up from the steps, turning to face the others. “She’ll want to know why her successor and son didn’t come home yesterday, yeah? I know Piers would be just as worried, if not more so.”

**_Otherwise she’ll think I’m dead,_ ** is Bede’s helpful typed response from his place in Marnie’s arms.

Victor cradles his cheek, the other hand supporting his elbow as he sighs. “We should, but we don’t even know if Bede can turn back, or what the circumstances as to why he got turned into an Espurr in the first place  _ are _ .”

“Do you remember what happened before you became an Espurr, Bede?” Hop asks the Espurr, who hums in thought as he stares at the stone steps to Gloria’s house, trying to recall. He gestures for the Rotomphone to hover in front of him again.

Marnie watches from above as he types,  **_I was going out of the Weald… Rotom’s storage full… Stunfisk bit me… wanted it off… that’s all I remember._ **

“That’s not much help… but it’s somethin’,” Marnie sighs as her Rotomphone goes to float over to the other three for them to read. She adjusts her hold on Bede before saying, “Maybe we should invest in putting you in a bag.”

“ESPURR?!” The indignation in Bede’s voice, even without a translation, is evident.

“Well, m’arms are gonna hurt from holdin’ you too long, methinks. Not sayin’ that I can’t hold you for a long time, but eventually I might get tired,” Marnie explains. “I’d put you in my backpack but I can’t see you from there.”

Gloria suddenly gets a  _ look  _ on her face - one of mischievousness and general tomfoolery. Bede decides he hates that look. “Ma still has th’ baby carria she used for me when ah was a wee lassie.”

Hop and Victor’s grins turn feral at the realization. Marnie blinks, unsure.

Bede feels his sins crawl up his back.

* * *

“Who’s a wee laddie in a baby carria? Huh?  _ Who’s a wee laddie?”  _ Gloria coos tauntingly, wiggling her index finger at Bede.

Bede, the Espurr, strapped to Marnie in a baby carrier.

Bede lunges forward the best he can to try and bite Gloria’s finger, but thanks to his current situation he was, for the most part, unfortunately stuck. Instead he resorts to growling in malcontent, arms crossed.

Gloria cackles like an absolute madwoman at his predicament.

Marnie, on her end, looks uncomfortable. “On second thought, maybe just puttin’ him in my bag is a better idea. This is just awkward and he can’ even move.”

“Tha’s th’ poin’, Marns,” Gloria waggles her finger. “Pink bastard cannae bite us if he’s stuck like this.”

**_You sick bitch,_ ** Bede snarls, struggling in the baby carrier.  **_Nie, let me at her, let me at her!_ **

“Yeah, I think I’ll just…” Marnie gestures for Victor to come closer, which he does, and takes Bede out from the baby carrier and hands him off. With a gulp, Victor holds Bede out as far away from his face as possible as Marnie hands the carrier back to Gloria and puts her bag back on - but in the front. She then takes Bede back and places him in her bag, his head for the most part hanging out for everyone to see. “There.”

Hop raises an eyebrow. “How is that any different from the baby carrier?”

“Less embarrassin’ for everyone,” Marnie admits. “Lots of trainers I’ve seen do it like this instead of actual baby carriers. Only person I’ve seen still doing baby carriers for their Pokemon are people like Miss Melony.”

“And Raihan,” Victor interjects.

They don’t ask him to elaborate further.

They do, however, look at Bede. Victor’s the one who asks the question, however. “Is that any better though, Bede?”

**_Infinitely better than the fucking BABY CARRIER,_ ** is Bede’s biting response on the Rotomphone.  **_But you don’t have to carry me, Marnie. I can walk, thank you._ **

“Espurr can fly too using their psychic power, I think. But mostly they just toddle around because the flight’s more activated by intense emotion,” Hop taps the side of his head, trying to recall facts he’d read up and witnessed while studying up to be Sonia’s assistant. “And like we said. Your leg’s still jacked up. Not allowed to walk.”

**_I’m not an invalid, damn you. I'm presently a Pokemon._ **

“Yer invalid, but not  _ an _ invalid, yes,” Gloria corrects. Bede seethes before scrambling to jump out of Marnie’s bag-

\- only to be caught in midair by the torso by Marnie, who hands him off to Victor again, moves her bag to her back once more, and pulls Bede back into a semi-cradle, though notably with a firmer hold on him that she had before.

“Stop that,” She tells him sternly. “You can’t just bite people.”

“Espurr.”

“No, you can’t. Stop that or I will use the baby carrier.”

Bede’s ears flatten against the sides of his head at the idea, and reluctantly he settles back into her hold as Marnie turns to face the others - whose faces had morphed into that of shock and disbelief - with a much more relaxed but small smile on her face. “So. Opal?”

“Marnie?” Victor reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder before saying in a serious but joking fashion, “I am in love with you.”

His words would mark the first time Bede broke out of Marnie’s hold and the first time he bites Victor’s arm.

* * *

By the time Victor, Hop, and Gloria finally dress and eat breakfast and set out with Bede and Marnie, the clock had already struck nine, meaning that they’d spent little more than an hour freaking out about what Hop recently dubbed as the ‘Bede predicament’, or the ‘Bedicament’. Presently the five were already at the train station in Wedgehurst, waiting as Victor went to go buy their tickets. Gloria and Hop were busy babbling excitedly to each other about the first time they’d all gone out together to ride the train to begin their Pokemon journey while Marnie and Bede patiently watch them from the benches.

“Bede?”

Bede looks up from the Pecha berry in his hands that Victor had offered him earlier. “Espurr?”

“... You could have let me know it was you a little earlier, y’know?” Marnie’s hands knead the cloth of her leggings as she speaks. “But I guess you didn’t know how, huh?”

Bede makes a noise akin to a dying Wailmer. Marnie snorts. “If you’re saying Hop and the others stole your brain cells via proximity, then okay, I get that. But also, you’re no better.”

“Espurr?!” Bede asks indignantly, forgoing use of the Rotomphone in favor of settling into old habits of just  _ speaking  _ his mind, forgetting she couldn’t directly understand him. It was easy to forget, though - out of their small group, Victor and Marnie in particular were the best at reading others, though Victor had the advantage of Gloria and Hop being much easier to read than everyone else they knew. Marnie, however - Marnie was used to her older brother, and Marnie was more reserved than the others. She could read all of them like an open book. - Bede more often than the others.

Bede liked to consider Marnie the closest thing he had to a best friend among the others. They shared mutual experiences - those being treating Gloria and Victor as their rivals and becoming young Gym Leader successors to existing Gym Leaders. Losing to Gloria and Victor was also a shared experience but they shared that with Hop too and that was a separate conversation altogether.

Marnie was also the closest Gym Leader to him in terms of age, for that matter. Bea and Allister technically qualified as well, but the Stow-on-Side duo preferred to keep to themselves for the most part, especially since Bea was practically on par with Piers and Leon in terms of being protective of her younger sibling. And he couldn’t really blame her for being defensive of Allister - Opal herself seemed fond of him and willing to pitch in when it came to watching him whenever she could.

He’d gravitated to Marnie almost unintentionally at every Gym Leader meeting, honestly - she’d usually be sitting next to Piers, who was at meetings only because he was a former Leader and still teaching Marnie the ropes in the same way that Opal still attended meetings despite being close to retired. Usually the seat on her right would always be open, and since Opal took the seat next to that one he usually took his place there on Opal’s left - and on Marnie’s right.

They’d gotten to talking eventually - when the meetings devolved into chaos because Raihan had decided on something absolutely mental and Nessa was  _ this close  _ to throttling him from across the table. There they’d discovered that the other was not actually a bad conversation partner - despite what others had said.

(Well, for the most part. Marnie had given him an earful for what he’d done to Hop on Victor and Gloria’s behalf once, and he’d been genuinely abashed and remorseful that time. Every other encounter after that was rather smooth sailing.)

From then and there, he’d unintentionally gotten rather attached to Marnie, whose listening ear more often than not was the recipient of many of his irritated rants about Gym Challengers making fun of his pink attire and for being the only boy in the Ballonlea gym and then - in his eyes - ‘pretending’ to be abashed whenever his Hatterene smashed them to bloody pieces afterwards. He didn’t normally open up to anyone besides Opal, and even then it’d taken a while for her to truly coax him into doing so. She didn’t rush him - she was patient.

And Marnie too, was patient. Marnie too was kind.

Perhaps it was this that had caused him to open up to her in the same way he’d opened up to Opal.

So it was no surprise to him when Marnie answers yet again, as though she understood everything he’d said. “You’re no better, you bugger. Don’t you remember the last time we went to a Battle Cafe together?”

How could he forget? It had been around a few months ago, around the Christmas months, on the day the Galar Gym Leader Christmas party was being hosted by Raihan. Bede and Opal had been extended invitations, being Gym Leaders, but they were by no means  _ required  _ to attend. He hadn’t been keen on it himself, but Opal had cheekily reminded him that Marnie was going to be there with Piers, and suddenly he’d found himself putting on the winter cloak Opal had personally made him and his boots before setting out with her.

The fact of the matter was, he and Marnie and Bea and Allister had eventually been segregated by the other older Gym Leaders when they’d broken out the alcohol, even though technically they - they being Marnie, Bea, and Bede - were already of age. He supposed that they’d grouped them with Allister, though, which was understandable. So they all went to a Battle Cafe instead.

Bede groans at the memory, sinking into the bench. The amount of Alcremie sweets Marnie, Bea, and Allister had to pick out of his hair that day had been immeasurable.

Marnie gives his head fur a gentle ruffle, something that for some reason she’d taken to ever since she’d met him as an Espurr. Not that he minded, really - it actually felt nice. And he preferred she do it than literally everyone else. “My point has been made. You’re just as dumb as them, but have more self-control for the most part.”

“Espurr.”  **_Don’t call me out like this, Nie._ **

Marnie only laughs.

“Got the tickets, lads!” Victor waves them over. “And lassies. And Bedespurr.”

**_Go eat a Steelix, Victor,_ ** is Bede’s snippy response, untranslated because he’d shooed off Marnie’s Rotomphone just for that one sentence.

“I have no idea what you said, but okay!” Victor replies cheerily.

Bede stuffs a paw into his mouth to keep from cackling.

At the turnstile, however, they encounter a problem.

“What d’you mean, Marnie cannae pass?!” Gloria demands.

The train station employee shakes his head apologetically. “I’m sorry, Champion's dearest, but the servos are detecting that that Espurr is unregistered to any of you as Trainers, so it cannot pass through.”

“Since when was that a thing?” Victor asked, brow furrowing.

“It was implemented very recently, unfortunately, thanks to a string of incidents in Kalos,” The employee explains. “There’s been a lot of incidents regarding Psychic Pokemon getting snatched off the streets of Lumiose City and so far it hasn’t really been resolved yet, so any befriended or wild Pokemon without any Trainer ID associated with them can’t pass through. Security measures and all. Even the Gym Leaders and Champions of any other region aren’t exempt from this new rule.”

Hop crosses his arms. “That really doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t understand it either, seeing as that so far all the incidents seem to be centered in Kalos specifically,” The employee admits. “But the management’s declared that we remain vigilant and make sure no Pokemon are being smuggled around without Pokeballs and shite like that. Don’t tell my boss I said shite.”

“What do we do then?” Victor worries, staring at Hop and Marnie. “We could just all take a Corviknight taxi, but I already bought tickets to Hammerlocke…”

Bede makes a soft keening noise that only Marnie can hear as he reaches out for the Rotomphone, floating over Marnie’s shoulder. The Rotomphone, sensing his call, moves down, and discreetly he punches in a few words for Marnie to read out loud.

“... We could take a taxi to Hammerlocke or to Ballonlea directly,” Marnie eventually says, scanning through Bede’s message. “Meet up there.”

Gloria shakes her head. “Marnie, that’s fockin’ mental. Yer not takin’ a feckin’ cab all the way to Ballonlea on yer own wi’out us.”

“And why not?”

Hop counts on his fingers the reasons, humming. “Well… for one, we’re all going together. Two, you’re gonna stand out like that because people know you’re Piers’s sister and the Spikemuth Gym Leader. They’re gonna want to know why the Dark-type Gym Leader is in Ballonlea of all places.”

“... No they’re not.”

“Yes they are.”

“No, they’re not,” Marnie explains patiently. “Because Gym Leaders are people too, and sometimes I visit Bede and Opal in my free time to train in the Tangle.”

Gloria hums. “She’s go’ a poin’ there, lad.”

“Okay, well- we can’t be separated!”

“But the tickets…” Victor waves them around.

Marnie holds up a hand. “It’s okay. You guys go on ahead. I’ll figure something out with…” Her eyes dart to the employee briefly before saying, “Espurr here, and the ticket can be given to someone else.”

“Are y’sure, Marns?” Gloria asks, hands on her hips. “We can all figure this ou’ t’gether.”

“And we will - in Hammerlocke. And we can get to Hammerlocke via the Wild Area.”

“Which you can only access via train-!”

“Um, well, actually-” They all turn to the train station employee, who pulls out a map of the Galar region in his pocket. “If you look here, you’ll see that you can actually also access the Meetup Spot in the Wild Area via a short trek. There’s a group of hills where the train passes through that may impede your journey, but I heard there were a group of people wanting to make a footpath from here to the Meetup Spot anyway for the people who wanted to save up on train fare.”

Marnie turns to the others, now with a determined look on her face. “There. See? No problem. We can make it there before lunch.”

“Well, if you’re sure… but take these with you still!” And before Marnie is able to reject it, Hop shoves a bundle of Revives and Potions into Bede’s hold in her arms “Just in case. Just in case. You never know, you know?”

Marnie raises an eyebrow. “I’m a Gym Leader, Hop. I’ve got loads of these with me. But thank you regardless. Espurr?” Bede looks up at her. “Put these in my bag if you can, thank you.”

“Espurr.” Bede, much to the others’ surprise, is surprisingly complacent as he gathers the bundles into his tiny hands and allows Marnie to lift him up high enough to drop the Potions and Revives into her sack bag before settling back into her hold. At their stares, he growls, as though to ask,  **_What are you looking at?_ **

“... Right. Okay. I guess we’ll… see you at Hammerlocke?” Hop nudges Gloria forward, and with a grumble, she plucks her ticket from Victor’s hands and passes through the turnstile. Hop follows not long after, calling out to Marnie and Bede, “We’ll wait for you at the Battle Cafe!”

Victor, the last to go in, crouches low to meet Bede’s gaze face to face. At Bede’s curious look, he leans into his ear, whispering something, and immediately Bede goes rigid. He leaves with a wave to Marnie and Bede before boarding the train with Hop and Gloria, and together, Bede and Marnie watch as the train departs from the station.

As they exit the station and head for the uncharted path the employee had directed them to, Marnie asks him, “You stiffened up there a little, Bede. What  _ did  _ Victor say to you?”

Bede shakes his head violently at her question, and she laughs. “Okay, okay, I won’t pry if you don’ wanna say. But I’ll be here if you do wanna, okay?” She adjusts her bag’s strings before saying, “Time for a little adventure, eh?”

“Espurr, espurr.” Bede replies distractedly, still thinking about Victor’s words.

_ You’re so gone, mate. Good luck crushing that crush like that. _

What the  _ fuck  _ did he mean, crushing a crush? He didn’t have a crush on Marnie. He  _ didn’t _ .

Bede repeats that chant the whole time they walk.

He hopes it’s a truth and not him just convincing himself of the truth.


	5. The Wild Area

**CHAPTER 5: THE WILD AREA**

* * *

Around three-fourths the way through the trek to the hills of the Wild Area, where they’d been told some people were trying to build a footpath, Marnie’s Rotomphone goes off.

**_“Hey, we’re takin’ our crown, we’re takin’ it now; hey, we never look back, we’re uncontainab-”_ **

“Rotom, answer call,” Marnie interrupts the song she’d assigned to the person calling almost immediately, and also immediately, Bede is treated to the sight of Piers on videocall, Rotom hovering in front of Marnie’s face as she speaks to her brother. “Hey bro.”

_ “Sis,”  _ Piers’s voice is just as deadpan over the phone as it is in real life. With Marnie, however, Bede could detect the same familial fondness Leon had whenever he was talking about or to Hop, or Bea regarding Allister.  _ “You don’t look like you’re in the Weald.” _

“Gave up on that,” Marnie explains. “Headin’ over to Hammerlocke now, then Ballonlea, ‘fore I head home.”

_ “The Champion's girl up to her usual schemes?” _

“More or less,” Marnie’s gaze darts down to Bede briefly before she says, “Listen, Piers. I’ll be home ‘fore the sun sets, a’ight? Jus’ need to settle some things over at Ballonlea.”

_ “With Bede, I assume,”  _ He says it more like a statement than a question, but Marnie nods in confirmation anyway.  _ “Don’t be too long, then. Unless he’s takin’ you home to Spikemuth himself.” _

“... Hopef’lly?” Marnie phrases this one more like a question, but Piers doesn’t ask to clarify, instead nodding to her before waggling his fingers goodbye to her. Marnie shifts Bede to one arm and mirrors his action before he drops the call.

As Marnie’s other arm returns to holding Bede as well, Bede reaches for the Rotomphone to comment,  **_You sound confident I’ll be back to my amazing self by sundown._ **

“I already think you’re amazin’ in your own right,” is Marnie’s immediate response, and Bede chokes on his own spit in surprise. He’s rather grateful that Espurrs didn’t naturally blush, or else he’d be done for in an instant. The compliment had  _ definitely  _ caught him off guard that time. “‘Sides, if we figure this out real fast, you  _ will  _ be human again.”

**_Optimistic._ **

“I try my best,” Marnie gestures for him to hang on, which he does, as she trudges upward a rather steep path. “This place looks like people been walkin’ on it over an’ over. Y’think this is the right spot?”

“Espurr,” Bede replies, his equivalent of “Probably.” at the moment.

And true enough, as they round a cluster of trees, they come across a group of what appeared to be miners taking a break next to what seemed to be a great candidate for the next Galar Mine. At the sight of Marnie, one of the workers perks up. “Leader Marnie! Great to see ya!”

“Good mornin’,” Marnie greets politely. “Is this the footpath they were talkin’ about?”

Another one nods. “Should be done in a few shakes of a Mudbray’s tail, really. We’re jus’ takin’ a break for now. You should too, if you came all the way from Wedgehurst on foot with that Espurr in your arms.”

“We really need to get t’ Hammerlocke soon, though…” Marnie murmurs, unconsciously holding Bede closer before looking back up at them. “Will it be done ‘fore lunch, though?”

“Oh, definitely,” A third worker replies. “Though if I may ask, why didn’t you take the train instead?”

Marnie gestures to the Espurr in her arms. Bede, on his end, was struggling very hard to maintain the illusion of being a normal Espurr. It was hard enough to maintain the illusion around Gloria’s mom and around the residents of Wedgehurst - now he was supposed to pretend in front of miners too?  **_And the rest of Hammerlocke, no doubt..._ ** “This is an Espurr I befriended. He’s still wild - doesn’t like being in a Pokeball. There’s a new rule at the stations about things like that, so…”

“Ah,” The first worker clicks their tongue in sympathy. “Heard all ‘bout that. My cousin from Alola? Upset she couldn’t bring in the Oricorio she’d befriended when it came to sit in her birdbath just ‘cause it wasn’t really hers and she respected its desire to be wild but still be her friend. Mite shame, really. Though I suppose it could’ve become an invasive species out here, don’t you think?”

Marnie, having no idea what the hell an Oricorio was, only nods in slight understanding. “Yeah… shame. I think we’ll jus’ sit over here while we wait on you all, if that’s alright?” She moves over to a mostly flat rock, taking a seat and allowing Bede to move and inch over to the rock next to her.

“Oh, sure! Recommend sittin’ on that one anyway, since we jus’ finished our break,” The third worker replies before picking up her tools once more. “Alright, boys! And Morgan,” She address the first worker fondly. “Back to work! Hup hup hup!”

**_They’re friendly,_ ** is Bede’s first words to Marnie as they watch them from a distance.  **_Makes me wish I hadn’t just barreled into the mines the first time I went through them._ **

“Would this coincidentally be the time Gloria nearly beat your ass for the first time before Victor held her back?”

**_How do you KNOW these? No. Never mind. Don’t tell me, actually. I don’t think I truly want to know the source of this blasphemy._ **

“Gloria.”

**_Of fucking course._ **

Marnie snorts with laughter just as a loud ‘BOOM!’ echoes out of the hole the workers had gone through. Both Bede and Marnie look at the tunnel in concern before one of the workers skitters out, dusty all over but giggling maniacally. At their concerned looks, however, he stops and waves them over. “Leader Marnie! The tunnel is pretty much finished, so you can go in and get out as quickly as possible as the first ever passerby! But please put on one of our face masks first before you go!”

“Um… a’right then,” Marnie, standing up, approaches the worker and takes the two face masks in their hands before putting one on. The other she takes over to Bede, crouching down in front of him to try and put it on, before realizing something. “Uh… how does this work.”

Bede pulls on the edges of his now floppy ears slightly, trying to tug them down. “Espurr… rruurrurr... espurr?”  **_Just… string them… on my ears? Maybe?_ ** “Espurr es purr.”  **_I don’t know. By this point I’m willing to try literally anything._ **

“Uh…” Marnie squints, the garters on either end of the face mask stretched between her index fingers and thumbs as she tentatively puts one of Bede’s ears through them, and then another.

She stifles a giggle; the mask ended up covering Bede’s eyes instead of his nose and mouth.

“It’s a wee bit too high for you,” Marnie tugs the mask lower, but it barely grazes his nose, so instead she takes it back off and rummages around in her bag for something. “It’s not a mask, but… maybe this’ll do?”

Bede peers around her curiously as she pulls out a handkerchief and folds it up before tying it around his head. Once she sits back, satisfied, he reaches up with his paws to check its security before nodding at her. It wouldn’t fall off, and with that said, Marnie picks him up again before heading right on in through the freshly dug tunnel.

It’s quiet, the brisk walk through the tunnel. With the mask and handkerchief muffling their voices and the general dim lighting of the area, the two of them aren’t exactly able to communicate during the entire walk. For a while, both of them are left to their thoughts.

Marnie’s thoughts are rather calm, for the most part. Her attention divided between holding on to the boy turned Espurr and to making sure she didn’t trip in the dim light, it didn’t leave much room for her to think of anything else beyond the reason they were walking through said tunnel in the first place.

It was concerning, in her honest opinion, that it was possible for a human to turn into a Pokemon in the first place. She’d read rumors before online of a scientist accidentally combining themselves with a Pokemon while working on an experiment regarding Pokemon teleportation, but that was science, at least. What had happened with Bede? Straight up  _ magic,  _ if his recounting was the only thing they could base off of.

A few Roggenrola toddle out of her way as she frowns in thought. For the longest time, she’d dismissed magic as something found only in, well,  _ fairy tales _ , like the books Piers used to read to her as a child. It was fun to imagine, but not necessarily real - that was something she’d believed in. But here came Miss Opal and her gym’s strange mechanics, the Glimwood Tangle’s odd complexity and maze-like appearance, Ballonlea itself, and now this…

Marnie wasn’t sure  _ what  _ to believe.

Bede sneezes in her arms, and Marnie glances down briefly. For the most part, he seemed to be taking his current form in stride, which was good at least. It would’ve been worse if he’d been continuously freaked out by his current situation, but Marnie knew he wasn’t the sort to go absolutely hogwild over the fact that he was small, furry, and adorable - especially not when Gloria was continuously egging him on and testing his patience, distracting him from the problem when needed.

Behind her mask, Marnie chuckles to herself.  _ Thank the gods for Gloria, really. _

“Espurr?” is Bede’s muffled question, and when Marnie glances down she sees his wide eyes looking right back at her. Had he heard her laugh? “Espurr…?”

“It’s nothin’,” Marnie answers, pausing to shift him to one arm again as she pet his head to reassure him. Funnily enough, he seemed to unconsciously chase her hand when she pulled away, but she doesn’t comment on it, choosing instead to continue the trek onward.

After a few minutes, light blinds the both of them as they step out. Marnie blinks back sunlight as the familiar environment of the Meetup Spot greets them - as does the lady and the Macro Cosmos employee who normally waited there.

“Leader Marnie!” The Macro Cosmos employee exclaims in worry. “You traveled all the way here from Wedgehurst?!”

“Tha’ coulda been dangerous!” The woman at the Meetup Spot chastises. “Why didn’t you take the- oh,” Her eyes flit down to see Bede in Marnie’s arms, and almost immediately she coos, reaching out to touch him. “Aw, wee laddie-”

“Ah-! I. He bites,” Marnie warns, and immediately the woman withdraws her hand, laughing. “Sorry. He’s not very fond of other people.”

“Tha’s alright,” She replies good-naturedly before fussing over Marnie next. “But are the two of you alright? I  _ told  _ those prats not to let anyone in until they actually finished carving it out properly-”

Marnie shakes her head. “We insisted. We really needed to go to Hammerlocke, and we couldn’t really board the train ‘cause he’s…” She glances down at Bede before looking back up. “He’s wild. Don’t want to be captured, but… he’s m’friend.”

“Ah, the new regulation, I get it,” She turns to the Macro Cosmos employee, who scratches his chin. “Well, she can def’nitely pass through the Wild Area, right? It’s not the train or nothin’.”

“Yes she can,” He nods. “But with that Espurr in your arms, you can’t really bike properly. Are you sure you’re going to walk the whole way?”

**_Are you really going to walk the whole way?_ ** Bede asks her in Espurrspeak, a hint of worry seeping into his words. He didn’t want her to just…  _ power  _ her way through the Wild Area alone. That was  _ stupid _ .  **_Please tell me you aren’t._ **

Marnie sighs. “I’ll take breaks, I promise. I’m a  _ Gym Leader _ . I know my own strengths and weaknesses. And I have my Pokemon with me, jus’ in case,” She reaches with one hand to pat the Pokeballs on her belt. “I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure…” The two older people retreat at her words, returning to their stations, and finally,  _ finally,  _ the two of them - Fairy and Dark gym leaders - set out for the Wild Area.

The first thing they do is pause at a fallen tree trunk. Setting Bede down, Marnie kneels in front of him and pulls the handkerchief off him, retying it into something like a scarf instead. As she moves on to check on his bandages, Bede touches the handkerchief with something akin to mute awe before  _ chrr _ ing at Marnie to get her attention.

“Yeah?” Marnie asks, eyes still on her bag and sifting through it for a new set of bandages. “Wha’ is it?”

“Espurr purrurr espurr?” Bede asks, tugging on the handkerchief.  **_Why’d you tie this around my neck?_ **

Marnie doesn’t answer for a bit, having not seen his action, too focused on changing the bandages. When she observes the wound, she winces at it already beginning to scab over before going to treat it as Victor had before. Her gaze flickers up to meet his briefly, and follows his movements to his tugging at the handkerchief.

“What about it?”

“Espurr?”  **_Why is it around my neck?_ **

“Oh, you’re asking why I tied it like a scarf?” Bede nods, and Marnie hums, going to apply disinfectant again on his wound. As he hisses at the sting, she answers, “If we end up encounterin’ a sandstorm, all y’got to do is pull it back up to cover your mouth and nose again. Consider it a precaution, yeah?” She ties off the bandages. “There we go. Good as new. You ready to go?”

Bede nods again, and Marnie closes her bag, slinging it back on her back before picking him up yet again and heading northeast towards Hammerlocke.

* * *

Around the time they’d reached North Lake Miloch, Marnie had decided to take a break and camp for a bit, setting Bede down on top of her bag before releasing her beloved Pokemon to roam around the camp. From his place atop her bag, Bede could see Peko scampering circles around her Scrafty, the old gal patiently sitting on the ground and watching her go. Her Toxicroak and Liepard seemed to be content just sitting next to each other, watching Marnie at the curry pot, while her Grimmsnarl was… looking right behind him?

Bede looks behind him.

He then promptly shrieks.

Marnie looks up from the curry pot as Bede falls off her bag. “Cera, you naughty girl. Don’t scare him like that!”

Cera cackles.

**_You didn’t tell me you owned a Mandibuzz!_ ** is Bede’s frazzled gasp-type into her Rotomphone when he waves around for said Rotomphone to float over and help him talk to Marnie.

“Cera’s a bit of a nutter,” Marnie admits, stirring the pot. “I only really use her when somethin’ calls for a six-Pokemon team, yeah? Raised her from when she was an egg - loves the hell outta me. She’s a baby compared to everyone else.”

Bede eyes the Mandibuzz warily before sending off another message to Marnie.  **_This baby is four feet tall and three feet taller than me._ **

“You’re just tiny like this, Bee.”

“ESPURR!” Bede cries out indignantly at her lighthearted jab, and though her Pokemon don’t understand him, they chortle at his expense. Cera, to her credit, doesn’t bother Bede further, save for picking him up by the scarf with her beak and delicately placing him back on the bag before hopping over to headbutt Peko and knock her over, inciting the Morpeko’s Hangry wrath.

With Cera distracted, Bede watches as Marnie’s Grimmsnarl stomps over and picks him up in one of his big claws. Bede is dwarfed by the sheer size of him as the Grimmsnarl observes him closely before nodding and growling, “Grimm…”, placing him back down before plodding back over to where Marnie is.

It’s intimidating to be an Espurr, he thinks, because Grimmsnarl are practically five feet tall and he was. Well. Only a  _ fifth  _ of their height at  _ least _ . He’s well aware, however, that Marnie’s Grimmsnarl would never hurt him - he was a gentle giant, as Marnie liked to reassure him.

The complete opposite of his beloved Hatterene.

The thought of his Hatterene makes Bede sigh, and Marnie looks up yet again, this time from placing and arranging curry into plates for all her Pokemon and herself. As she taps on the side of the pot to call the Pokemon over, she picks up two plates and goes over to Bede, sitting next to him and offering the second plate.

“You looked like you got a lot on your mind,” Marnie explains when he looks back up at her questioningly. “Here. Made some curry… didn’t know what you preferred so I jus’ went with Gobber’s favorite if you don’ mind.”

Rotom passes by them both briefly.  **_Gobber… your Grimmsnarl?_ **

“Yeah,” Marnie smiles, and both of them turn to witness the Grimmsnarl delicately handling the food and plate in comparison to her Liepard, who was gobbling it up like a woman possessed. “So. What’s on your mind, Beby?”

Bede squints at her.

Marnie, realizing what she just said, flushes the faintest of pinks in embarrassment. “It’s- it’s a thing. Ask Victor about it later when we meet up with them, yeah? But yeah, what’s on your mind?”

“Purr…” Bede looks down at the curry she’d made before going to type a response on Rotom.  **_Just… thinking about my Pokemon. Thinking about Hattie, the others…_ ** He sighs.  **_I wonder if they’re okay._ **

Marnie’s free hand goes back to petting his head fur again, already becoming a habit. Bede would be lying if he said he didn’t mind in the slightest. “If you left them at Ballonlea, they’re prob’ly fine… would they recognize you, though?”

**_That’s the thing,_ ** Bede laments through text. His curry remained untouched.  **_I don’t know, and it… it scares me. Mainly because Hattie can and will punt me into the Glimwood Tangle if I make any sort of strong emotion._ ** He slumps on top of her bag.  **_Also, I REALLY miss them. I miss…_ **

Bede freezes.

**_THEY HAVE SYLVIE!!!_ **

“Who has Sylvie?”

**_HOP!_ ** By the way his paws seem to shake while typing, he doesn’t seem very happy about it.  **_Hop, or Gloria, or Victor- one of them has Sylvie’s Pokeball! She’s with them! Here I am homesick about my Pokemon and one of them’s right with-_ **

“Praaaaaaah!” With a furious growl, Bede shoos away the Rotomphone before stuffing his face with Marnie’s curry to distract himself from his frustration. He then slows, chewing, before looking up at Marnie with what appeared to be stars in his eyes.

“I take it you like it,” Marnie observes in amusement. Bede looks back down at the curry before looking back at her and nodding slowly. The action makes her laugh as she says, “Tha’s reassurin’. Glad to see my cookin’s up to par.”

“Purrurr espurr,” Bede says in between bites. Marnie takes it to mean, “Damn straight”.

“Still, though…” Marnie frowns, taking a few bites out of her own curry. I don’t think you need to worry. You’re gonna see them again soon when we get you to Ballonlea, and to Opal, yeah?” Bede looks up at her as she adds, “And then… we’ll figure out what happened to you. Why you turned into an Espurr. And then things’ll go back to normal.”

_ Back to normal, huh?  _ Bede eats the last of the curry before staring at his reflection on the metal plate. The Shiny Espurr he’d become blinks back, mouth messy with curry. He wipes at it hurriedly before looking yet again at his reflection.

**_His_ ** _ reflection? No… that wasn’t supposed to be his reflection. He wasn’t an Espurr - he was Bede, successor of Opal, Gym Leader of the Fairy type gym of Ballonlea. Prince of the fairy types, prince of the Tangle, as Opal affectionately nicknamed him. _

_ He was  _ **_not_ ** _ an Espurr. _

Bede bares his teeth at himself, as if trying to scare it away. But the reflection bares its teeth right back, and the sight, to be frank, terrifies him slightly. Espurr weren’t scary by default - but that was if you were taller than five feet tall. And right now he was one foot tall - and the Espurr reflection was scaring him.

Because it could very well become his reflection permanently if he didn’t turn back.

The thought makes a chill run down his spine and anxiety spike through his chest, the fur on his body standing up as a reaction.

“Hey,  _ hey,”  _ He’s numbly aware of Marnie taking the plate away from him and placing it on top of her own before setting them aside and picking him up, seating him on top of her knees so that they were meeting eye to eye. With one hand she smooths down the raised fur while the other holds him steady as she says, “Snap out of it, mate. You’re gonna go back to normal. You’re gonna become human again. Don’t panic - look at me.”

He’s unable to, the Shiny Espurr’s gaze darting to and fro around their surroundings..

Marnie frowns, before muttering a soft “fuck it” under her breath and pulling closer. Bede is snapped out of his panic as Marnie picks him up and holds him in her arms in the best approximation of a hug she can get without crushing him, and in his surprise he stiffens under her hold for a brief second, his head resting by the crook of her neck.

“You’re gonna be fine,” Marnie says softly, her hands holding him gently by her side. “We’re gonna get you back to normal, trust me. Trust in me, and Hop, and Victor, and Gloria.” She closes her eyes. “We’re your friends. We’d never let you deal with this alone.”

**_We’d never let you deal with this alone._ **

Bede remembers, for the briefest of moments, dealing with everything alone - before Chairman Rose had endorsed him, when he’d been at the orphanage. He remembers dealing with everything alone - when Chairman Rose had withdrawn his endorsement, when Oleana had practically thrown him to the wolves and snatched away the Wishing Stars.

He remembers feeling incredibly alone.

But then he remembers Opal - remembers her inviting him to Ballonlea to become her successor. Remembers Annette, Teresa, and Theodora cooing over him and making him feel as welcome as possible. Remembers them making sure he never felt alone.

He remembers Victor during their Gym challenge, remembers Gloria, remembers Hop. He remembers Victor always extending him a welcome to his camp whenever he’d encountered him, remembers Gloria doing the same but in a more abrasive manner. Remembers them withdrawing it after what he’d done to Hop… but he also remembers them all opening their arms to him and including him into their fold after everything that had happened with Eternatus.

He remembers the feeling of being part of something.

“You’re never alone, okay?” Marnie reminds him. “Just remindin’ you.”

And he definitely needed the reminder.

Bede curls into her and lets himself get lost in the warmth of her embrace, just for that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i, for one, am absolutely ecstatic that people are enjoying this fic as much as i'm enjoying writing it ahkldhglkfhglkdfhg thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this little fic
> 
> i drew marnie and bede the other day from this fic if anyone wants to look at it: https://ryukogo.tumblr.com/post/190174968181/
> 
> \---
> 
> The names of Marnie's Pokemon are as follows:  
> \- Peko (F), Morpeko  
> \- Lola (F), Scrafty  
> \- Percy (F), Toxicroak  
> \- Gobber (M), Grimmsnarl  
> \- Moranea (F), Liepard  
> \- Cera (F), Mandibuzz


	6. Hammerlocke

**CHAPTER 6: HAMMERLOCKE**

* * *

It’s past eleven o’clock when Bede and Marnie make it to Hammerlocke Hills, having traveled straight towards it for most of the morning save for the brief camping breaks they took in between. At some point during the trip Bede had elected to sit on Marnie’s shoulder instead to give her arms a rest, but it hadn’t really been much of a success. Eventually they’d settled on Bede clinging to her back, tucked inside her jacket and his claws gently hooked into the fabric of her shirt. When he’d expressed worries that the shirt would get ruined, she’d only waved him off, claiming that she had a lot of the same shirt back home.

“Ripped clothes, if Raihan’s tweets are anything to base off of, are trending apparently,” Marnie had said in response to his concern. “It’ll be fine.”

Now, approaching the entrance to Hammerlocke, Marnie sighs in relief, pausing to sit on a nearby rock and catch her breath. From her back, Bede carefully snags his way to the right in order to rest his chin - or what little chin he had as an Espurr - on her shoulder before asking, “Espurr?”

“We’re almost there,” Marnie reassures, a hand reaching over to pet him on the head yet again. It’s intriguing to see him leaning into her touch each time, but she didn’t dare ask.  _ The guy must be so tired of bein’ an Espurr that this sort of thing’s really reassurin’…  _ “We’ll be meetin’ up with Gloria and the others real soon, and then we’re off to Ballonlea. You’re almost home.”

**_Home…_ ** Bede murmurs, and involuntarily a purr begins to rumble at the base of his throat at the thought of being back in Ballonlea, the town that had welcomed him into their fold and allowed him to flourish as he should have. He wanted to see Opal, he wanted to see Annette, Teresa, Theodora, he wanted to see his Pokemon, he wanted… he wanted...

Marnie raises an eyebrow in disbelieving amusement. “Are you  _ purring? _ ”

Bede’s thoughts crash into each other with a sudden screech, and the purring stops immediately, his eyes wide as his brain attempts to backtrack to the past few seconds.  **_Was I?_ **

The hand she’d been using to pet him moves to where she knows is the general location of his throat, two fingers gently grazing under the scarf and under his chin. The vibrating she’d felt against her shoulder had  _ definitely  _ stopped, which meant… “Oh my god,” Marnie exclaims, a smile stretching across her face. “You  _ were _ , weren’tcha?”

**_No. Stop. We’re not having this discussion,_ ** Bede grouses, unable to really  _ tell  _ her in exact words via Rotomphone given that his paws were occupied with clinging to Marnie in the first place, but she gets the message anyway. Like Gloria had done, she coos gently at him, but unlike with Gloria, he feels no inclination to bite her to get her to stop cooing at him. He does, however, feel the inclination to groan in embarrassment.  **_Nie. No. Nie._ **

“Aw, no need to be ashamed or nothin’,” Marnie reassures. “Nea purrs all the time when she’s happy, yeah?”

**_Yes, but Moranea is a LIEPARD. I am a human. I shouldn’t be DOING THAT._ ** She doesn’t understand a lick of what he’s saying, but they’re both certain that body language was enough to get the message across anyway as she stands up again, ready to set out once more.

“You’re actin’ like it’s the end of the world that I heard you purr,” Marnie teases lightly, heading towards the entrance to Hammerlocke. “It’s not like you spoke a forbidden language or anythin’.”

**_Practically,_ ** Bede grumps, but at the sight of her tender smile directed at him he looks away with puffed out cheeks. Had he been human in that moment, his cheeks would have been red with embarrassment.  **_No, don’t look at me like that- no, stop that. I did not purr. You stop that._ **

“It’s  _ fine,  _ you sulky boy, I promise. No judgment here,” Marnie laughs, and the sound of it makes Bede calm down at least a little bit. He always did enjoy hearing her laugh; it was always a treat whenever she loosened up enough to snort with laughter at anything, and it was doubly enjoyable whenever he knew  _ he  _ was the one that made her laugh. Sure, it was nice to hear her laugh because of Victor, or Gloria, or Hop - but it was  _ different  _ when he was the one who made her laugh.

Was that odd?

Bede thinks about it briefly, nibbling on his lower ‘lip’ as the sounds of Marnie explaining that she was bringing along a befriended Pokemon to Hammerlocke fades into background noise for the moment.  _ Surely it wasn’t…? _

Bede, ever so briefly, remembers what Victor had whispered to him before they’d temporarily parted ways as a group.

_ Good luck crushing that crush like that. _

**_No!_ ** He shakes his head wildly, catching Marnie’s attention as she ascends the stairs. Curiously she glances at him for an answer, but he’s distracted trying to convince himself that no, he did not have a cr… cru…

**_Stop thinking about it, you absolute buffoon!_ **

“Are you okay?” Marnie asks in concern. “What’s goin’ on?”

Bede blinks, and then shakes his head wildly yet again, trying to convince her that nothing was wrong by giving her a toothy little Espurr smile. “Espurr, espurr. Espurr es purr purrur es espurr.”  **_N-nothing’s wrong. Absolutely NOTHING’S wrong. I am fine. You’re fine. We’re fine._ **

“Y’sure?”

“Es purrrrrr.”

“... If you’re sure,” Marnie smiles back at him, and together they ascend the staircase into Hammerlocke at last.

* * *

By the time the two of them reach the Battle Cafe, they’re greeted by the sight of onlookers cheering on a battle happening inside yet again. Thankfully enough, despite Marnie being a recognized face, their arrival isn’t given much fanfare. As she takes off the sleeve of her jacket to allow Bede to carefully claw his way back into her arms, she asks a nearby onlooker, “What’s goin’ on?”

“Ah, Leader Marnie,” The man nods in acknowledgement before answering her question. “Seems there’s been a dispute at the front counter. The customers are settling it with a Pokemon battle, and the winner gets a coveted Ribbon Sweet while the loser receives a different prize.”

Marnie shakes her head, half in dismay. “It wouldn’t be so coveted if they let everyone have a proper chance to receive one in battles in the first place. Aren’t Ribbons and Stars the rarest?”

“Extremely,” The man she’d asked nods. “Ah, and look. It seems the winner has been decided, but truly it was inevitable that she won, she’s the Battle Tower Empress, after all.”

Bede and Marnie simultaneously choke.

Sure enough, Gloria’s victorious yell rings through the air, and with a brief ‘thank you’ to the man they’d been talking to, Marnie and Bede gently but firmly push through the throngs of people to get to her. After a few moments, they manage to get through, witnessing Gloria shaking the hand of a Fairy type trainer.

“Thank you for the battle, Gloria. It’s a delight to have been able to challenge you again like this,” The older woman says, and as she turns around Bede yelps in alarm, recognizing her face.  **_Annette!_ **

“What the- Be-e?” Marnie, thankfully enough, has the foresight to  _ not  _ say his whole name as he tries to duck into her jacket. “H-hey! What’s wrong?!”

Gloria perks up, hearing her voice. She turns to her left, and waves. “Oi! Marnie! Glad ye made it, lass! Jus’ won me a  _ wicked  _ treat for one of the Milc’ry back home!”

“Oh, Marnie,” Annette nods in greeting, giving the Spikemuth native a kind smile. With how often Marnie dropped by Ballonlea to talk to Bede or train in the Tangle, the Ballonlea gym trainers often saw her - enough that they were comfortable enough with addressing each other like old friends. “Lovely to run into you, dear.”

“You too, miss Ann-” Marnie yelps as Bede continues to wriggle into her jacket. “Hey!”

Annette cocks her head to the side in concern. “Something wrong?”

“My- my  _ Espurr- _ ” Before she can explain further, however, Bede makes a panicked squeak as he slips from her hold and hurtles towards the floor. His eyes shut tightly, waiting for impact -

\- except he doesn’t meet the floor. The impact never comes.

“... Bee?”

Bede opens one eye, and then another. He looks at the floor, a few inches from his face, and rolls over to stare up at the faces staring down at him and at the ceiling. Marnie’s, Gloria’s, and Annette’s faces in particular are the ones cloistered around him as he reaches backwards with his paws to try and feel the floor. He doesn’t feel it.

**_Oh, son of a bitch. I’m floating._** Lousy goddamn stupid Espurr psychic powers that he didn't know he had.

“Is that your Espurr, Marnie?” Annette asks as Marnie carefully reaches out to pick up Bede from where he was floating above the floor. “Lovely one, he is. Beautiful shade of pink.”

Hop, on the sidelines, coughs into his fist as Marnie’s cheeks color a rosy shade of pink. “I- um. He’s a friend. Not really my Pokemon, just- I befriended him. He’s just a friend.”

Victor chokes on his latte.

“Oh, I see…” Annette crouches down to look Bede eye to eye, and Bede seems to  _ vibrate  _ in Marnie’s arms as she does so. “He looks terrified of me. He must have been through a lot of bad things - and warmed up to you enough to trust you like this. And he’s hurt too?” Her eyes drift towards the bandaged leg. “You poor dear…”

_ [ You poor dear… ] _

Her words briefly take him back to the day they’d first met - to when Opal had pulled him along to Ballonlea to be her successor. Annette had said the exact same words after Opal had introduced him to her Gym Trainers, but had immediately followed up with a promise to do her best to make him feel as welcome as he could possibly feel in Ballonlea. Teresa and Theodora had agreed to do the same.

“It’s funny, but…” Annette squints, and holds out a hand to Bede. When he doesn’t react or lash out, Annette looks to Marnie for permission - she nods - before smoothing out a bit of his head fur. “He reminds me so much of Bede, with how this little one’s fur curls. His fur is just as soft as his hair as well...”

Marnie, Gloria, Hop, and Victor all simultaneously stiffen at her comment. Bede himself is unable to really move - not when Annette is brushing his head fur the same way she always brushed his hair as a human when he’d let her do so. The gesture is so familiar, so comforting, that Bede closes his eyes and lets himself get lost in the feelings, forgetting for just a bit that he was an Espurr, tucked in Marnie’s arms.

Right now he is not an Espurr.

* * *

_ He is just a young boy, no older than sixteen, sitting in front of a vanity in an oversized Fairy gym shirt, as Annette runs through his hair with a brush with gentle strokes. _

_ He’s unused to the kindness she shows, unused to the familial affection he receives from the women at Ballonlea. Rose had not been a doting father figure, and Oleana had been too busy making sure his plans for the future went without a hitch, to really provide him with too much attention - familial attention. _

_ They were all he had then, and he’d craved the validation. Craved their attention, their praise, their love - and he never truly did get it. Not really. Not even after he’d gathered the Wishing Stars, not even when he’d been the perfect Gym Challenger. He’d done everything, and yet… and yet... _

_ Annette’s hum is as warm as Charizard-grade curry, the melody she sings one of the many little nursery rhymes sung to children in Ballonlea. The lyrics are haunting, precautionary - but childlike and fantastical all the same. Sharp like a sword but gentle as a Sweet Kiss, it makes him forget Rose and Oleana, if only for a brief moment, in favor of listening to her song. _

**_"Be wary, little one, of the forests of Galar;_ **

**_Take care to watch your step, and always know just where you are._ **

**_The faeries like sweet children whose hearts are pure like snow;_ **

**_I do not want to see you gone, or I will miss you so._ **

**_My dearest one, my darling dear, the apple of my eye_ **

**_Respect the forest guardians that watch you from on high;_ **

**_Their powers are immeasurable, their magic like no other;_ **

**_Watch out for fairy circles or you’ll leave your grieving mother._ **

**_The fey folk of the Galar lands are powerful and kind,_ **

**_So listen to my lullaby and keep it in your mind;_ **

**_For if the faeries go forgotten, so too will magic die;_ **

**_And I cannot bear to lose you, or in my arms you’ll lie."_ **

_ “It’s a song,” Annette explains, when she sees Bede look at her through the mirror as though asking her about it. “That my father used to sing to me when I was a child. Though I suppose Opal would tell you the same thing, seeing as that it’s one of Ballonlea’s more famous nursery rhymes.” _

_ Bede is silent, his eyes trailing over the items on the vanity as Annette continues to hum. His Gothorita, Gothi, walks over and pats his arm gently as though sensing his turmoil, and with a sigh he goes to pat her on the head- _

_ His other hand brushes against the watch Rose had given him. _

_ His eyes trail over it, painfully slowly, before he clenches his fist and looks away. He doesn’t want to think about Rose right now. _

_ Not when Annette’s ushering him to stand and meet with Opal, who seemed to believe in him more than Rose and Oleana ever did. _

* * *

When Annette finally pulls away, Bede opens his eyes and returns to the present. Gone are his long, lanky limbs, gone are his human fingers and feet, his human body, his voice. All he can say is a plaintive “Espurr...” as though calling out for… someone? Who was he calling for? Annette? Opal? Marnie?

He didn’t know.

“I know I’m not one to talk about these sorts of things, but,” Annette looks around. The crowds that had watched their battle had already dispersed a few minutes ago, but she looks to check just in case before placing something in Marnie’s hand. “A friend like this one… you should consider catching him before anyone else does. A wild Espurr in any city is always in danger of hitting someone else’s empty Pokeballs by accident and being captured… and I don’t think either of you want that.”

Marnie glances down at Bede, and unconsciously she holds him closer to her, almost protectively. “‘M’not lettin’ that happen.”

“I know you won’t,” Annette smiles pleasantly before nodding back at Gloria. “I must head on out now, however. I was here merely to pick up some treats for the Pokemon back home, and now I’m off to the market in Hulbury for a few things. Where are you kids headed?”

It’s Victor who answers, walking closer at the question. “We’re headed to Ballonlea, actually. Going to talk to Opal.”

“Oh dear, is this about Bede?” At their wide eyed stares, Annette sighs. “He didn’t come home the other night, and while she said nothing, I know she’s worried about him, but chooses not to say anything because she trusts he’ll come back home.” She shakes her head morosely. “She’s told us to remain calm and settle back into routine, but I can’t help but worry about where he is! You lot were the ones with him, weren’t you? Where is he?”

Hop swallows, his gaze darting towards Bede as Victor answers carefully, “He’s coming home really soon, miss Annette. He’s just been needing to deal with something, so we’re going over to Ballonlea to ask Opal something before he can come back.”

“I hope it’s nothing dire,” Annette frets. “I’ll be heading over to Hulbury now, so you kids can go on ahead. Do update me however so I don’t get scared to death when Bede comes home all of a sudden.”

Bede pipes up, “Espurr, espurr,” as though reassuring her.

“And a goodbye to you too, little Espurr,” Annette giggles before waving goodbye to them, heading for the door to the Battle Cafe. As Annette opens the door, Marnie glances at the object she’d given her, and blinks in surprise. _A Love Ball? Where’d she get one of these?_

The moment the door closes behind her, Marnie is suddenly yoinked into a side table by Victor and Hop as Gloria hisses, “Where were you two?!”

“Walkin’ through the Wild Area, where else?” Marnie replies dryly. “We weren’t that long, were we?”

“Well, no… but long enough that Gloria got into a brief scuffle with Annette earlier,” Hop sighs before wiggling his fingers at Bede. “You holding up alright, Bede?”

Now that they were seated, Bede waves around for the Rotomphone, which Marnie gladly supplies. Almost immediately, his tiny paws hammer out a response to Hop.  **_Doing about as well as I possibly can right now, yes. But Marnie needs to rest._ **

“Ideally, we’d be setting out for Ballonlea right about now… but yeah, Marnie should rest for a bit,” Victor nods. “You want anything from the menu, Mar?”

“Ah, no- I’m fine, really,” Marnie taps Bede on the nose, making him sneeze and rub at his face ruefully. Victor snorts as the girl chastises, “Stop telling them I’m tired, Bee. We already had a lot of breaks on the way to Hammerlocke.”

**_You’ve been carrying me all day. I’m declaring you rest for an hour here before we head to Ballonlea._ **

“Y’can’t tell me what to do.”

**_That’s why I’m typing it, dear._ **

The words type themselves out before Bede can stop himself, and the  _ second  _ he realizes what he typed he hits the backspace button with so much force so many times Rotom actually squeaks, “ _ Hey! Watch the screen, bzzt! _ ”

“What happened?” Hop asks as Bede sinks low into Marnie’s lap, face burning. With Bede, at least, it wasn’t obvious that he was flustered since he was an Espurr. With Marnie, however, there was a distinct tint of pink to her cheeks as she turns her Rotomphone face down on the table and mumbles something to Victor. “Hello?”

“‘S’nothin’,” Marnie mutters, eyes darting to the side. “I’ll take that break if you really want me to. We’re doin’ this for you, y’know, Bede.”

His paw reaches for the Rotomphone.  **_I know. Thank you._ **

“Ye’ll get back tae normal soon, Beet, don’t ye fret,” Gloria reassures from across the table. She slides a Big Malasada over to him, and at his bewildered look she winks. “Vic won this earlier ‘gainst some laddie eager tae fight the Champion inna one on one battle. He’s got loads a this already, so he won’ mind if you took one.”

Bede looks at it, then back at her again, before Gloria groans and practically shoves it at him. “Jus’  _ take  _ it, ya big baby.”

“Heh. Beby,” Hop snorts.

Bede’s eyes brighten, and Marnie briefly remembers her slip up earlier as he goes to type into Rotom,  **_Right. I was going to ask. What’s this about ‘Beby’?_ **

Victor comes back with Marnie’s drink minutes later to find Hop and Marnie trying to separate Gloria and Bede from choking each other yet again.

_ Some things just never change, huh?  _ He shakes his head, smiling, before going to take a seat at the table with them.

* * *

**_[ Hours earlier… ]_ **

The minute Bede doesn’t come home before midnight, she knows something is amiss.

But Opal didn’t pry, at least initially; for once, Bede had forgotten his phone that day, so calling him directly would have been pointless. The Battle Tower Empress was just so excitable, dragging the little prince out, and right before he had to practice for the year’s play too! Opal vaguely envied her youth - but only vaguely. She’d lived a long, fulfilling life, after all - Gloria was still young and fresh, and full of spirit.

It was only fair.

The next morning goes by fairly uneventfully; she wakes up to her Alcremie Parfait patting her bedside with her tiny hands, and she gets up painfully slowly. With Bede out of the house, it’s Parfait gently guiding her through her morning routine, the Alcremie fetching things just out of her reach so Opal wouldn’t have to strain. She goes through breakfast, and her shower - with Parfait dutifully watching - , and dresses for her morning stroll, and bids the trainers of the Ballonlea gym a good morning before setting off with Parfait by her side.

Still Bede does not come home.

“He must be having fun,” Opal tells her Alcremie as she settles on a bench close to the outskirts of Ballonlea, bordering the Glimwood Tangle’s entrance of curling trees and Trevenant. The benches by the entrance were made for anyone who wanted to observe the residents of the Tangle without actively going  _ inside  _ the Tangle, since the Trevenant of the forest were stalwart and stern guardians, only allowing a few people passage to the heart of the forest.

Ever since she’d been a little girl, Opal had been taught many things by her mother, who’d been leader of the Ballonlea gym before her. Her mother had always had a close relationship with the residents of the Glimwood Tangle, as had her mother before her, and her mother’s mother, and her mother, and so on. Their family had always had a deep connection with the Tangle’s residents, and a good number of it mostly stemmed from the fact that a long time ago, when Ballonlea was still young and the royalty still roamed, her ancestor had befriended a fairy.

More than befriended, in fact - he had fallen in love with her. And like all mortals who came to love the fae, he was nearly trapped in their world for eternity. But he’d been smart, avoiding drinking and eating anything in their realm without offending them, and he  _ did  _ truly love the fae he’d fallen for. Eventually, she’d followed him back to the mortal realm, where they began a family of their own.

Magic was real, Opal knew this much. Her ancestry itself was proof of it - but the generations had all but erased the traces of magic in their blood, and history had relegated its existence to that of children’s stories. They were amusing, certainly - and at least, in a way, it kept magic alive in the hearts of children. That much the fae could hope for.

Magic was real, Opal knew, because she could perform a little magic of her own. Nothing too spectacular nowadays - in gym battles people knew it as her ‘stat’ technique, where she lowered or raised the stats of her opponents’ Pokemon if they answered a question of hers a certain way. When she was younger, she could make bubbles of light emerge from her fingertips to amuse the young ones, and perhaps she’d had the advantage as an actress by being able to conjure rose petals from nowhere to accentuate her performances. Either way, her magic had and always would be a part of her, and she’d grown to live with it.

“Cremie?” Parfait asks, tugging on the edge of her dress.

Opal chuckles, and moves her umbrella in a manner that scoops Parfait up and onto the bench next to her. Satisfied, Parfait coos and wiggles her bottom tier of frosting like a child would rock their legs on a bench as her Trainer lets both her hands rest on her umbrella, eyes falling closed as she allows the sounds of the forest and the town to envelop her.

_ Opal? (Opal?) _

Ah. And here they were.

_ Opal? (Opal?) _

Opal’s face is graced with a gentle warmth - like a little light - as she feels something tickle at her cheek. Parfait coos at what Opal does not see, and gently, ever so gently, she feels the tiniest of weights settle atop one of the knuckles of her hand.

The old woman hears the faint chime of bells, or perhaps of jingling keys, and without opening her eyes, she smiles.

“Hello there, dear one. It’s been a while.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hammers out chapters as fast as i can before i lose my drive*
> 
> the song annette sings in this chapter is something i made up myself; it only seemed right to me that there would be nursery rhymes of a similar type especially in the fairy-oriented ballonlea
> 
> as for opal... Fae!Opal or Fae Friend!Opal is still something i like to stand by ALKHKGLHDLKFGHLKDFG


	7. The Espurr Effect

**CHAPTER 7: THE ESPURR EFFECT**

* * *

“So the next thing on our agenda is…?”

“Stow-on-Side,” Gloria declares, pointing and tracing a line from Hammerlocke to the next area, and then to Ballonlea, on Hop’s map. “From Stow-on-Side, we go an’ maneuver th’ Tangle, an’ then hop’fully we’ll all be at Ballonlea befer dinner! And prob’ly get some explainin’ in wi’ Opal, yeah?”

“Who’s doing the challenge this year?”

**_Bea. Allister dropped by Ballonlea the other day to tell Opal so._ **

“He really walked through the Tangle just to tell Opal?! That boy is a mad lad, I tell you. A  _ mad lad _ .”

With Hammerlocke far behind them, the small group was presently trudging through Route 6 on their way to Ballonlea - or  _ had been  _ trudging through Route 6, had Victor not called for a brief “team discussion” right by one of the few notable sources of water in the area. Currently they’d set up camp in order for their Pokemon to get some stretching in, so there was an overabundance of caught Pokemon wandering the area due to four trainers at once sharing a camp and releasing  _ all six of their Pokemon each  _ to explore the campsite.

They were probably breaking some rules somewhere, but did any of them care?

_ SPLASH! _

“Ugh, Vic! Control yer fockin’ dragon, will ye?!”

“It just soaked my coat!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault it wanted to jump into the water! It’s okay, Natu, they just don’t appreciate you like I do.”

Marnie shakes her head, a wry smile on her face. She’s thankful she’d picked a spot far from the pool of water, because her choice had saved both her and Bede from a watery fate. “The fact that you named the Pokemon that almost destroyed everything  _ Natu  _ of all things is still the strangest thing.”

“It’s a genius nickname, you must admit,” Victor grins before crouching by the side of the water pool. With how big Eternatus was, it quite literally took up most of the space of the pool even curled up and with all its interlocking appendages layered up to make more room for the others. The only space really left there was a small spot reminiscent of a hot tub - and in it, Victor’s Intelleon was calmly relaxing against Eternatus. “I call out Natu, people expect that I brought out a Natu to a fight. And out comes-”

“Quite literally, a twenty meter long broken umbrella of a dragon.”

“Be nice to Natu!” As he says so, Victor takes Natu’s snout(?) into his hands and coos at it. “You’re just a sweetheart, aren’t you, Natu? Who’s a good dragon? Huh? Who’s a good dragon?”

Everyone covers their ears.

“MMRRROOOOOHHH!” Natu cries happily, nuzzling into Victor’s hands. Victor laughs, butting heads with the smoother part of the legendary’s face before sending it back to relax in the pool, turning to where he’d set up his tent and items to grab some snacks for everyone else to eat while resting.

**_I’d say it was a strange sight, but after yesterday, I can confidently say I’ve seen stranger,_ ** Bede types out as Hop shrugs off his coat and hangs it on the nearby Trainer Tips sign to dry. The scientist’s assistant then proceeds to duck into the tent just as Victor was leaving it, the latter throwing a towel into Hop’s face as he goes out.

Moments later, Hop’s shirt goes flying out of the tent and smacks his Dubwool in the face.

His Dubwool, Shep, the champ that he is, thankfully doesn’t seem bothered by his Trainer’s soaking wet shirt as he trots up to the sign and flings it up to hang next to Hop’s coat. He does the same thing to Hop’s pants when it goes flying out of the tent as well, and when he’s done he settles next to Gloria’s Obstagoon, proud of himself.

“Morororo!” Peko chitters delightedly from the side. With one of the many seeds she had packed in her fur pockets, she signals to Gloria’s Eiscue Coo and Hop’s Cramorant Dewey, who looked to be gearing up for a race. “Moro… peko… Mooooor-PEKO!”

“CUEEEE!”

“MORAAA!”

Coo and Dewey launch themselves at the finish line, webbed feet making wet pattering sounds against the dry earth.

“There they go,” Victor laughs as he takes a seat on the ground next to Bede and Marnie. He offers Marnie a pack of Snom-shaped Colbur berry candies and Bede a bag of Oddish-shaped Grepa berry candies as he says, “While we wait on Hop to get dressed, how’s about you tell me if anything special happened on the way to Hammerlocke?”

Bede nibbles on a candy as Marnie cocks her head to the side. “Well, apart from there being a new shortcut from Wedgehurst to the Wild Area’s Meeting Spot, nothing special really happened?”

“Really?” Victor pops open a bag of Tamato crisps and crunches on one before musing, “I expected something more to happen.”

**_You want another bite mark to match?_ ** Bede manages to type in the middle of cramming the rest of a candy Oddish’s body into his mouth.  **_You and Gloria can have matching bite marks._ **

“Wha’  _ izzit _ wi’ ye an’ bitin’ ev’ryone?!” 

Marnie and Victor look up as Gloria stomps over and drops down in front of Marnie and Bede, arms crossed as she scowls at Bede. Bede, much to her chagrin, seemed to be mostly unaffected as he continued to eat the Grepa candies right in front of her.

“Seriously!” She snarls, prompting Bede to look up at her. “Ye tern ferreh  _ once  _ an’ sudd’nly tha’s  _ all  _ ye can do?! Wha’ happened tae good ol’ fashioned talkin’, eh?!”

Bede swallows the candy currently in his mouth before typing primly,  **_As you can see, I am incapable of talking verbally._ **

“So ye resort tae BITIN’?!”

**_Seems effective to me._ **

Gloria makes a noise akin to a boiling kettle before Victor places a hand on her knee, attempting to placate her. “I mean, that just means that he and Marnie make a great team, then."

“And what does  _ that  _ mean?” Marnie asks pointedly.

Victor shrugs nonchalantly; to Marnie, it’s nothing. To Bede, however, it’s a taunt. “I mean. If I’m remembering correctly, you used to say things like ‘this move represents how I feel’ whenever we battled. And then you’d have your Morpeko use Bite on whoever I had out. So you know,” His eyes focus in on Bede for a second too long before flickering back to Marnie’s face. “I’d say you two were made to be a team.”

_ BONK! _

“OW!” Victor winces and glances behind him. “What the- a floating branch?!”

Marnie looks down at Bede, and notes that his ears are no longer pressed against his head like they usually are. Rather, they were lifted - as though he were using psychic powers like a normal Espurr did.  _ Hm…  _ “Bede?”

He doesn’t respond. The ears remain lifted, his eyes crackling with faint pink psychic energy. The branch that was floating behind Victor’s head then begins to whack him repeatedly, making the boy stand up in a panic trying to chase the branch away.

“Hey!” Gloria barks at Bede. “Quit it, ya wee bampot! He’s stoppin’, he’s stoppin’! Jus’ fockin’  _ stop,  _ eejit!”

Yet Bede doesn’t answer.

Marnie frowns.  _ This isn’t like him. They argue and spite each other, but… not like this.  _ “Bede, hey. Do you hear me? Look at me if you do.”

He doesn’t - a warning sign. As the branch continues to smack against Victor’s shoulder, quietly Marnie reaches for both of Bede’s ears with her hands and ponders, _An Espurr… contains its power and releases it through the ‘eyes’ under its ears. Wonder if all it takes is…?_

With careful hands, she cups his ears closed and back to his head.

The branch drops to the ground, and the glow from his eyes fades. Victor realizes that the onslaught had stopped, and straightens out, a hurt but mostly confused look on his face as he approaches Bede and Marnie yet again - though Gloria pulls him back, wary of Bede.

Bede himself, however, seemed to be disoriented, taking slow, staggered out blinks and looking around. His body slumps against Marnie’s with a defeated sounding “Espurr…” as Marnie’s Rotomphone hovers over her shoulder worriedly.

“Is he okay?” Victor asks. “He doesn’t look so good.”

Gloria protests, “ _ Yer  _ wan tae talk, he battered ye tae kingdom come, the bampot! An’ don’ go so near him yet,” She tells him sternly, pulling him back and sidling over so that she was in front of him. “We dinnae th’ reason fer wha’ he did.”

“Espurr…?” Bede mumbles in confusion, staring down at his paws. He flexes his fingers slowly, trying to regain his bearings, just as Shep carefully bites down on Hop’s clothes and drags them off the sign and dragging them off to Hop himself. Within a few moments, Hop emerges from the tent, satisfied with his sun dried clothes.

With a hearty grin, he turns to his human companions as his Cramorant chokes on Marnie’s Morpeko and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl teams up with Gloria’s Cinderace to pull her out. “Right! My clothes are dry now, so we should be able to-” He trails off at the sight of them. “- uh. Did something happen while I was out?”

“He hit Victor with a stick,” Marnie gestures to Bede.

Hop blinks. “Okay. Normal.”

“Nae, tha’ ain’t it, chief! Th’ wanker did it wi’ psychic powers!” Gloria waves her hands around to emphasize her point as Bede slowly looks up at Marnie. “Didnae look like he remembers doin’ it though… lookit him.”

Marnie’s gaze turns to Hop sharply. “What do you know about Espurrs, Hop?”

“Espurrs… Espurrs…” Hop’s brow furrows as he tries to recall. “Espurrs hold enough power inside their bodies that they can send the average human wrestler flying through a wall. The problem is… they’re usually unable to control it. You see the eye markings under their ears?” He reaches over to lift Bede’s ears up, but when Bede bares his fangs he withdraws. “... Yeah! Uh. Those markings are where a good chunk of the psychic energy can leak out. That’s most likely the reason why both Espurr and Meowstic have evolved to have their ears folded over to cover it by default.”

Gloria crosses her arms. “Yer sayin’ he jus’ los’ control then.”

“He lost control of- wait, he has psychic powers?!” Hop crouches down in front of Bede excitedly, but not without staying at a respectable distance away from him that he could not bite his nose off. “I mean, I saw him  _ float  _ in the Battle Cafe, yeah, but I didn’t think it extended to actual psychic abilities! Can you try a move?!”

Victor sighs. “Hop, he’s not really a Pokemon…”

“I know, but - but this is a perfect opportunity to answer questions we never really could answer about Espurrs if he  _ does  _ have a four-move moveset like a normal Pokemon!” Hop practically  _ vibrates  _ as he waddles to the side and gives Bede some space. “Go on, Bede! You used to be a Psychic-type trainer, surely you remember some moves!”

Bede gives him a deadpan look before looking down at his bandaged leg. He then tries to recall some Psychic-type moves on the fly as he considers Marnie’s boots from where he’s seated.  _ Let’s see… Psychic type moves… Psychic type moves… uh... Light Screen? _

Victor and Gloria jump back as the screen manifests in between them and Bede. They gawk at the sight as Hop frantically scribbles down notes, nodding almost feverishly to himself. “He knows Light Screen, typical of Espurrs of a certain level… means he’s at that level… did his human experiences total to the level he’s at now…? Must… investigate…”

“That’s a Light Screen,” Marnie observes, reaching over him to press her fingers against the projected wall of light. It’s cool to the touch like glass, but bright like a dying star. “That means he knows Light Screen. How about offensive moves?”

“This is cool an’ all, but… we should focus on  _ th’ probl’m ahhand?!”  _ Gloria reminds in exasperation. “Bede’s an Espurr. A  _ Shiny  _ Espurr. An’ he’s doin’ psychic tricks an’ pullin ‘em outta his arse. An’ we still ‘ave no idea how we’re gonnae explain thi’ tae Opal!”

Victor scratches his cheek thoughtfully as he gestures to Bede blinking up at him from his spot in Marnie’s arms. “I mean. She’s what, ninety plus years old already?”

“Ah dun wanna be th’ cause a premature heart attack tae an old lady!”

Marnie shifts Bede to one arm before whacking Victor’s shoulder with a fist gently. “Don’t be barmy, Vic. Opal has quite lit’rally experienced worse, yeah?”

“Like Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokemon running wild,” Hop reminds him, closing his notepad and reminding himself to later ask and get Bede to experiment a little more with his capabilities as an Espurr. “As well as Eternatus-caused tremors that knocked even Raihan on his arse!”

Victor snorts. “Okay, okay, I get the point. But still… we don’t even have much of an explanation for this whole thing, and Bede himself doesn’t remember jack!”

“Espurr, esssss purr,” Bede complains vocally. “Purrurrurr es purrurr.”

“Uh. Translation?”

Marnie’s Rotomphone descends in front of Bede at his command.  **_I said, it’s not my fucking fault I heard voices in the woods._ **

“Voices in the woods?” Hop’s eyes narrow. “Hold on a minute. You didn’t mention that before, mate.”

**_I didn’t?_ **

“No… yeah, you didn’t!” Hop squats in front of Marnie and Bede again before deciding that it would be better on his legs to sit down on the ground directly, so he does so. He waves a hand around as he says, “Describe the voices. What were they saying? Were they male? Female? Echoey? Clear? All that stuff.”

Bede frowns, and had Espurrs had any visible eyebrows he would have furrowed his by then.  _ Describe them?  _ His tiny paws hover over Rotom’s keyboard hesitantly as he closes his eyes, trying to recall them.

**_Opal._ **

“Opal?” Marnie asks.

**_… They kept saying Opal, but…_ ** Bede makes a low growling noise at the back of his throat - one that makes Hop step back a little.  **_They kept… saying it like a question. Like they were asking… either about her, or if… I was her?_ **

**_[ Opal? (Opal?) ]_ **

Remembering the voices echoing around him made Bede’s hackles rise unintentionally in his spooked irritation. At the sight, Marnie risks letting go of an ear to run her fingers through his head fur in reassurance - which he reacts to by relaxing, appreciative of the gesture. He hammers out another response.  **_They asked for her three times. But it was… echoing. Like it was right there with me but so far away at the same time._ ** He frowns.  **_And then I stepped on a Stunfisk, and got wounded._ **

**_And then I…_ **

His paws stop typing.

Victor looks at him. “Bede?”

**_[ His heel makes contact with a tree root - one bordering the other edge of the hillside of the Weald. He tumbles, and falls_ **

**_But he does not crash. ]_ **

The briefest flashes of a memory suppressed cross his eyes, and suddenly Bede is frozen. He cannot remember the rest of the fall, but he remembers…  **_Carried._ **

“Bede?’

**_I was… carried. To where you found me, Victor,_ ** Bede looks up at Victor, who only gazes back solemnly at him before he goes back to typing.  **_By something I didn’t really see… tiny balls of light. Like… tiny… Illumise? Or Volbeat?_ ** Beat.  **_Do you know what those are? Oh, whatever. It’s an expression._ **

Hop snickers before schooling his face into a more serious expression. “Is that it?”

**_As far as I can remember, yes._ ** Pause.  **_… Sorry, Victor. About hitting you._ **

“No skin off my back, Bede,” Victor smiles good-naturedly before extending a hand towards him. “Let’s shake on it?” Bede wrly waves a tiny paw in response, and he laughs. “I don’t mind shaking paws with an Espurr, if that’s what you’re trying to say.”

“Espurr,” Bede answers, and with delicacy the two shake hand and paw. Bede settles back into Marnie’s arms as he asks in typing,  **_So… Opal?_ **

Marnie’s hand idly pets and ruffles Bede’s head fur as she muses, “Whoever did this to you… they know Opal, or  _ of  _ Opal, at the very least. Her nickname is ‘the wizard’, isn’t it?”

**_Wizard of bullshit,_ ** Bede types out, and he didn’t need to say it out loud for them to be able to hear the dryness in his tone.  **_But what does that have to do with-_ **

“WAIT!” The group turns to Hop, whose eyes are alight with a sudden flame. He pumps his fists in a gesture most familiar to Gloria and Victor, who’d grown up with him and traveled around Galar with him, as he declares, “Bede! You mentioned that Opal thinks highly of the fae!”

**_… You think faeries did this to me._ **

“It… makes the most amount of sense,” Marnie says, humming. Bede looks up halfway at her in a look of mock betrayal before she reminds, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who put in their heads that the fae are real. You of all people should be most receptive to the idea.”

**_Doesn’t mean I have to like it,_ ** Bede grouses through text.  **_And suppose they DID do this to me. WHY?_ **

“Tha’s th’ big Q here,” Gloria grumbles, crossing her arms before sighing and grabbing her Pokeballs. “Bu’ we won’ get any answers jus’ standin’ ‘round ‘ere. We need tae getta move on tae Ballonlea - an’ maybe Opal will have answers. Back in yer balls, ye lot!” She calls out to her Pokemon, recalling them one by one.

As Hop and Victor go off to recall their Pokemon, Marnie seats Bede down on her bag gently before saying, “I’ll be right back. Don’t fall off the bag,” and taking off, going after her Grimmsnarl first.

**_I’m NOT an invalid,_ ** Bede grumbles, but again, nobody hears or understands him, so he resorts to sitting patiently on Marnie’s bag - or he  _ would  _ have been sitting patiently, had something not been poking him from underneath. With a growl more akin to that of a wild Espurr he shifts and pokes at an item sticking out from Marnie’s bag, trying to shove it out.  **_What the fuck could this-_ **

A Love Ball falls out next to the bag - the Love Ball Annette had given her. Not that Bede knew Annette had given it to Marnie.

**_\- be…?_ ** He frowns, and despite himself he inches over closer. Pokeballs seemed much, much bigger when you were a Pokemon -  _ especially  _ if you were one foot tall Pokemon like Espurr were. And Bede, presently,  _ was  _ a one foot tall Espurr.  **_I never took Marnie to be one for Love Balls. She’s always been more of a Dusk Ball sort of Trainer, since her Pokemon are Dark types…_ **

Carefully, he turns around in place so that he’s facing the Pokeball, and tentatively his paws press against the painted heart design on top of the Pokeball.  **_Feels the same… and yet it’s a whole different experience still as an Espurr._ **

“DEWEY, LET GO OF HER, MATE!”

“HOP! GET YOUR CRAMORANT AWAY FROM PEKO!”

“I’M TRYING!”

Bede startles at their shouts, and when he turns to look, he chokes on his own spit at the sight of Hop trying to wrestle his Cramorant away from Marnie’s Morpeko. Her Grimmsnarl had his tendrils wrapped around her waist trying to help her pull on one end while Hop’s Rillaboom had abandoned his drums in favor of pulling Hop and Dewey the Cramorant back by Hop’s feet. Victor, meanwhile, was trying to be the middleman this time, directing Dewey and Peko on how to separate.

**_Idiots,_ ** he thinks at the sight of them, but not unkindly. They weren’t  _ really  _ idiots - they were intelligent in their own ways, and it took him awhile to realize that. But they sure loved to tread the thin line between idiocy and intelligence with how  _ stupid  _ their shenanigans were.

Would he have it any other way?

… Not really.

He looks back at the Love Ball just as the tug-of-war ends.

“PEKO!” A gasp of air.

“MORANT!” A choked gurgle.

Gloria bursts into cackles in the background as Marnie and Hop recall the last of their Pokemon in embarrassment.

“That was embarrassin’,” Marnie groans, tucking Peko’s Pokeball back into her belt. “An’ I thought seein’ Pikachu in Cramorant mouths were weird. Now it’s targetin’ other electric rodents?”

Hop carefully returns Dewey’s Pokeball to his own belt before defending, “Hey, it’s not his fault that your Morpeko looks a little like Pikachu!”

“Peko was in  _ Hangry Mode. _ ”

“... Fair point.”

Marnie shakes her head in disbelief before heading back over to where Bede was waiting - but not before seeing exactly what he was staring at. “Bede, be careful, that’s an-”

“Espurr?” Bede turns at her call - and his bandaged leg accidentally swivels and hits the button on the Love Ball.

Marnie’s breath catches in her throat as her heart stops for a beat.

And in that beat, Bede disappears into the Pokeball.

One rattle.

A second.

A third.

Marnie, Gloria, Victor, and Hop all watch with bated breath.

The Pokeball stops moving.


	8. Stow-on-Side

**CHAPTER 8: STOW-ON-SIDE**

* * *

“Tell me that didn’t happen.”

“That happened.”

“I SAID TELL ME IT DIDN’T HAPPEN, NOT TELL ME IT HAPPENED!”

“THAT’D BE LYING, VIC!”

“THIS CAN’ BE FOCKIN’ ‘APPENIN’, AH SWEAR TAE-”

“EVERYONE,  **_SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A MINUTE!_ ** ” Marnie roars, silencing Gloria, Hop, and Victor with her sudden change in volume. As the three of them turn to Spikemuth’s princess, she massages her temples briefly for a moment, trying to collect herself before taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly. “Okay.  _ Okay _ . Let’s… assess the situation again, yeah? Let’s assess the situation.”

Hop begins with, “Bede’s a shiny Espurr. And he touched a Pokeball.”

“An’ the Pokeball  _ captured  _ ‘im as though he were actually a Pokemon an’ nae  _ jus’  _ a human in the  _ form  _ a th’ Pokemon,” Gloria interjects.

Victor finishes the sentence with a flourish. “And now we’re not exactly sure what this means for him, or for us, or for literally everyone else who knows him.”

“...” Marnie inhales sharply again, and exhales, painfully slowly. And does it again. And again. Three more times she does this, until finally, she deigns to approach the Love Ball on the ground, sitting peacefully among the sands and rocks of Route 6. The pink Pokeball was eerily still - or rather to her it was  _ eerie  _ how still it was, given that there was  _ something  _ inside it this time, with that something being her  _ friend  _ who  _ used to be human _ . Sending her Mandibuzz’s Pokeball back into the PC, she adds the Love Ball to her team, but it remained in her hand as she stared at it, worrying her lower lip.

Bede was in there.  _ Bede, the Gym Leader of Ballonlea, polymorphed into a Shiny Espurr, one of her dearest friends and companions, was  _ **_in the Pokeball she was holding_ ** .  _ A Pokeball that one of the Trainers of the gym he was in charge of had given to her when she’d thought said leader was just a wild Pokemon she’d befriended. _

_ Good lord almighty, what the  _ **_fuck_ ** _ was her life becoming. _

Victor approaches her carefully, placing a hand on her arm. “Marnie?”

“...” Marnie’s fingers tighten around the Pokeball. “... He’s in this thing. Bede’s...” She holds it up for him and everyone else to look at. “He’s in this Pokeball.”

“You know… we’d know for sure if he was okay after that if you tried to send him out,” Victor reminds gently.

Marnie’s gaze narrows at the cursed ball that had contained her friend, and with an uncharacteristically dark look she tosses it with a ferocity unmatched at the open air to release the Love Ball’s contents.

Bede, the shiny Espurr, emerges in a burst of hearts.

_ THUMP! _

And lands flat on his face.

Gloria chokes back a snicker.

Hop instinctively pushes forward to pick up the Espurr, propping him up on one of his knees to double check on the injured leg again. At their questioning looks he elaborates, “You  _ know  _ that keeping Pokemon in Pokeballs doesn’t do anything for their health unless you apply Potions or bring them to the Pokemon Center. I’m just checking if that tumble did anything to his leg.” To Bede, he asks, “Wiggle your leg for me, mate?”

Bede opens his mouth to respond, but promptly sneezes as the dust from his pratfall tickles his nose.

“Not what I asked for, but sure,” Hop makes the executive decision to  _ gingerly  _ pinch Bede’s paw between two of his fingers before moving it around carefully, eyes rapidly alternating between the paw and Bede’s face to make sure he wasn’t making any moves to bite him when he was off guard. When it didn’t seem like he would, Hop relaxes and refocuses on the leg.

Gloria crosses her arms, her fingers drumming against her forearm. “What’s the status?”

“Good…? Good, definitely good news, he’s still as injured as he was before that,” Hop declares, and they all stare at him strangely. He stands up and hands Bede back over to Marnie - who manages to clip the Love Ball back on her belt before he does so - before adding, “But even better news, he’s back with us! Hurrah!”

Gloria leans forward and critically examines Bede sitting in Marnie’s hold again. “ _ Is  _ he really?”

Bede meets her eyes with an unblinking stare, reminiscent of the typical Espurr, his mouth set in an impassive frown. She stares back at him, squinting.

He tugs on an eyelid and sticks out his tongue.

Victor and Marnie burst into laughter as Gloria makes a boiling kettle sound whistle between her teeth. “That’s him alright,” Victor wheezes, watching as Bede  _ chrrs _ with laughter at Gloria’s expense. “Good to see you’re alright, Bede.”

“Espurr, espurr purrurr es,” Bede replies automatically - but upon remembering that none of them could understand him verbally, he makes grabbing motions for a Rotomphone. This time it’s Hop who supplies his blue Rotomphone, and upon receiving it Bede repeats in text form,  **_Good to BE alright, or at least as alright as I can be right now_ ** .

Marnie’s lips purse as she shifts him back on one arm, her free hand moving to pat him. “You sure you’re okay? I didn’ expect you to be… you know.”

**_I’m fine, Nie,_ ** Bede types, peering up at her. To the onlooker, one might have described his look as soft, because it certainly was not the typical wide eyed Espurr stare. Victor in particular seemed to pick up on it, because a knowing smile crosses his face as Bede adds,  **_It was just a strange experience, that’s all. And as of today, I am the king of strange experiences and the prince of bullshit. Opal would be proud._ **

Marnie snorts. “Only now? What happened to when you were dealin’ with the rest of us during your Gym Challenge? Not the prince yet then?”

**_Hardly. Haven’t met Opal at that point in time._ **

“As if Opal’s the end all be all of bullshit, mate.”

**_You saying she isn’t?_ **

“I’m not sayin’ anythin’, but… our friends exist.”

**_Fair point, but also consider: she is the WIZARD OF BULLSHIT._ **

Victor coughs loudly, catching their attention. He gives them both a knowing grin as he taps on the time on his watch. “Care to share what you two are laughing about over there, or are we going to head on over to Stow-on-Side already? We’re running late, Luvdisc.”

“Luvdisc?” Marnie echoes as Bede releases the Rotomphone back into Hop’s hold. “That another foreign Pokemon that you for some reason know about?”

“Kabu told me all about them once when I asked about his league card,” Victor explains as Gloria and Hop go to pack the tent back into their bags. “They’re native to his region, Hoenn, but some of them pop up around Alola and other regions too. They’re uh…” He scrunches his face and tries to draw it in the air with his finger, but it only serves to make both Bede and Marnie even more confused. He sighs. “You know what, forget it. You can look it up later and you’ll understand what I mean.”

“Okay…?” Marnie shakes her head before looking back down at Bede. “I’m assuming you don’t want to go back in the… ball, right?” At Bede’s vehement head shake, she nods. “Right on, then. I’ll keep carrying you until we get to Ballonlea, and then we’ll be havin’ a proper talk about that Pokeball later.”

**_Sounds good to me,_ ** Bede says, trying to convey it instead through vocal tone. But then, as an afterthought, he makes grabbing motions for Hop’s phone again, and when he gets it back he types out,  **_Wait, but… you’ll be tired carrying me again. Maybe I should go back in the… Pokeball for now._ **

“Are y’sure?” Marnie asks, frown marring her face. He doesn’t like seeing the frown. “You said you didn’t want to go back into the ball. I can carry you no problem.”

**_Then let’s compromise then. When you do get tired, put me back in the ball._ **

“Really?”

**_Really. It’s not uncomfortable in there, I promise. It’s just… strange because I know I’m in a Pokeball of all things. But it’s alright._ **

“Well… alright then.”

* * *

By the time they set foot in Stow-on-Side, it’s in the middle of the afternoon, where the sun is shining its brightest on the desertlike town. As their motley party walks through the town, they’re treated to the sight of-

“Lee?!” Hop chokes out.

Sure enough, the former Champion is standing in the middle of Stow-on-Side’s square, conversing with none other than Stow-on-Side’s Fighting type gym leader, Bea. The latter appeared to be most perturbed, lost in thought as Leon looks up from their discussion and spots his brother from a distance. Immediately, a bright smile crosses his face, and he waves them over.

“If it isn’t Team BAMF! Didn’t expect to see you all here in Stow-on-Side today!” Leon greets as they approach. Marnie gives Bea a polite wave as Hop is assaulted by a noogie to the head by Leon, but Bea doesn’t seem to notice as Victor asks, “Team BAMF? Since  _ when  _ were we Team BAMF?”

Leon blinks, and pulls out his phone, tapping on the icon for what seemed to be the Gym Leader groupchat before scrolling up a bit. “Not sure if you lot have been keeping up with the group chat-”

“I just lurk,” Marnie shrugs. “Bede does the same, so we don’t really keep up with it.”

“Huh. Well, Raihan coined it-” He turns his phone around, and they all squint at the photo of them taken at the Battle Cafe. “- after seeing a tweet of Gloria fighting one of Ballonlea’s trainers for a… what was it? An Alcremie sweet?”

Gloria gives him a proud grin. “Gon’ give it tae one a th’ Milc’ry back home.”

“What does BAMF stand for anyway, in this case?” Hop asks, fixing his hair back to before Leon’s noogie had ruined a good portion of it. “Badass motherfuckers?”

“Language,” Leon chastises. “But yes.”

“What the- you don’t get to tell me ‘language’ when you cuss like a sailor when Mum’s not lookin’, Lee!”

“Badass motherfuckers? Sounds right tae me!” Gloria guffaws before eyeing Bede. She hums. “Though in his case, he’s more o’ a ‘baby ass motherfucker’, yeah? Or maybe bitch ass motherfucker?” She grins in a rather feral way at Bede, who was  _ incredibly close  _ to biting her on the nose. “What do you think, Bede ass motherfucker?”

**_Your bones are fucking MINE, Gloria,_ ** Bede snarls, unsheathing claws and furiously clawing in Gloria’s direction, but unluckily for him she ducks out of the way much too quickly, howling with laughter.  **_You HEAR ME?! I’m biting your fucking KNEECAPS off!_ **

“Right back atcha, ya fockin’ wanker!” Gloria cackles.

**_YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING!_ **

As Bede and Gloria bicker, Bea finally snaps out of her stupor, noticing at last that it was no longer just Leon by her side. She sighs, crossing her arms before nodding in acknowledgement at Marnie at last. “Sorry… was lost in thought. Good to see you, Marnie, Victor, Gloria, Hop.” She looks around, and raises an eyebrow. “Strange. You don’t seem to have Bede with you lot. That’s rare.”

“Is it?” Marnie asks, and Bede pauses to look in Bea’s direction curiously. “Huh. Didn’t think we were  _ that  _ iconic of a group.”

Bea, unimpressed, gestures vaguely in the direction of the Glimwood Tangle. “You say that as you head on towards Ballonlea on foot to meet with Bede, I’m assuming. Fetching the prince from his cardboard tower, I’m assuming.”

“Is this about the play Ballonlea’s staging this year?” Leon asks. “What’s it about?”

Bea shakes her head. “Allister flat out refuses to tell me since this year he’s working behind the scenes with Gengar. He’s certainly gotten a ticket for me to sit in the front row, but that’s as far as I’m allowed to know. Did Bede tell any of you about this year’s play?”

All four of them simultaneously look at Bede, who shrinks in Marnie’s hold. The sudden refocus on the Espurr makes both Bea and Leon turn to look as well, and at the sight of him Leon gets the exact same excited look Hop had as he crouches down to meet him eye to eye.

“That’s a shiny Espurr, isn’t it?” He asks Marnie, who nods. “Handsome little guy. Kinda reminds me of Bede, but in the ‘curly hair’ way, not because he looks like an Espurr.” Pause. “... Oh my god, he looks like an Espurr, doesn’t he?”

Hop chokes on his laughter as Bede seethes verbally,  **_You’re lucky you’re the former Champion and that I hold more than an ounce of respect for you._ **

“I didn’t know you were considering changing up the Spikemuth gym’s typing,” Bea rests her chin on her fist in thought. “Are you considering becoming a Psychic type trainer, Marnie?”

“Wha- no!” Marnie exclaims, nearly dropping Bede in her surprise. Before he makes contact with the ground, however, he manages to catch himself with the exact same psychic energy he’d shown off in the Battle Cafe before Marnie picks him up again, murmuring an apology to him. “I mean, no, Spikemuth’s still a Dark type gym. He’s just a friend I’m bringing over to… Bede and Opal. For them to see.”

“Is he captured?” Pause. She eyes his bandaged leg. “... Did you bring him to the  _ Pokemon Center _ for that leg?”

“He wasn’t  _ supposed  _ to be, but…” Marnie lamely cocks her hip out for Leon and Bea to see the Love Ball standing out against the roster of Dusk Balls on her belt. “He sort of. Got himself captured while I wasn’t lookin’, yeah? He’s supposed to be a wild Pokemon that I just befriended.”

Leon gives her a bewildered look. “If he’s just a wild Pokemon, how on earth did you all make it to Hammerlocke, let alone Stow-on-side?”

“New footpath in Wedgehurst, walked all the way here,” Marnie declares. The clashing looks of dismay and impressed on Leon’s and Bea’s faces make her snort. “Not a big deal. Took breaks in between, I promise.”

“And he’s been injured this whole time?” Bea holds out a hand to Bede, asking permission, and when he doesn’t react she takes the injured leg in one of her hands. “What hurt him? Is it not able to be treated at the Center?”

Hop steps forward this time. “Stunfisk bite. Nasty one at that. He was bitten before he got inside one of Marnie’s Pokeballs so we just treated him normally. Wound should be gone in a few days, give or take.”

“Ah. So it’s not a wound the machines can necessarily heal.”

“Not really.”

Bea withdraws. “I see. So that’s why you’re carrying him around instead physically instead of the Pokeball?”

“Well, no… but…” Marnie glances down at Bede, who blinks back up at her. “I think he likes it better when he’s out of the ball like this. But I’ll put him back in when I’m tired.”

Leon nods. “Smart.”

“So why’re you here in Stow-on-Side, Lee?” Hop turns to his brother. “What’s going on?”

Bea answers for him, turning to face Hop. “In the group chat we’re in, I sent out an SOS regarding a sudden unrest in the Glimwood Tangle, and Leon was the first one to respond. Everyone else was busy, and Opal doesn’t really check the chat unless Bede sees the message, so he came over.”

“What’s up with the Tangle?” Victor asks in confusion. “Might as well pitch in, since we’re passing by the Tangle.”

Bea nods. “Right on. Allister told me that some of the Trevenant that guard the Glimwood Tangle’s beaten pathways have been dealing with intruders, and the high amounts of emotional distress have been stirring up the local Hattrem into lashing out at Trainers that pass by the Tangle.”

“An’ the Trevenan’?”

“The Trevenant haven’t been able to keep the Hattrem at bay because they’re busy dealing with intruders, and the Morgrem and Impidimp aren’t any help either with how often they like to prank visitors to the Tangle, so Trainers who try to access Ballonlea on foot via the Tangle are treated to violent Hattrem.” Bea crosses her arms as she adds, “Allister’s in there right now, doing what he can, actually. You might come across him if you’re lucky.”

“You got all of this from Allister’s talk with a  _ Trevenant?” _

Bea gives Victor a flat look, making him shrink back. “If my brother says that the Tangle is in trouble, then I believe him. If you manage to make it through to Ballonlea unscathed, could you get Bede to help as well? His knowledge of how to handle the Fairy types in the Tangle could help.”

“We’ll see if we can convince him,” Marnie nudges Bede discreetly, and he only makes a soft  _ chrr _ in response. “For now, I think we’ll go head into the Tangle before it gets  _ too  _ dark that we can’t see squat in there.”

“Great! I’ll join you kids,” Leon grins before he yelps, hopping around on one foot and favoring a leg. “Bea! What was that for?!”

Bea lowers one leg, looking nonplussed at the fact that she’d just kicked the former Champion in the shin. “Just a not so subtle reminder that you promised to help round up the Passimian that escaped the Tangle first and are now roaming Stow-on-Side’s recently built lower areas.”

“Argh, right, sorry - you didn’t have to kick me though!”

“Sonia told me that getting your attention when you’re wholly focused on something is a bit difficult, and that was the first thing that came to mind.”

“I’m going to tell her to stop telling people that, but for now-” Leon nods at the motley crew. “I’ll be heading off with Bea now, but you lot should head on over to the Tangle while you can.”

A loud crash resounds in the air, and Bea winces at the sound of shattering pots. “And there go the Passimian. We’ll see you guys later.” Grabbing onto two of the Pokeballs on her belt, she calls out, “Sirius! Adira! Help me out here!”

“Let’s go, Fuel!” Leon tosses out a Pokeball from his belt. “We’ll take the skies, you and your Pokemon wrangle them up as we go!”

“Got it!”

“ _ Sir- _ FETCH.”

“MaaaCHAMP!”

“CHHHRROOOUUGUH!”

In flashes of light came out Sirfetch’d, Machamp, and Charizard, and as Leon hops onto his Charizard’s back Bea’s Machamp Adira grabs her by the arm and flings her onto her shoulders. Bea nods again at the group before signalling for her Sirfetch’d Sirius to lead the way, and with a battle cry the bird Pokemon charges on down the steps to Lower Stow-on-Side, Adira and Bea hot on his heels.

“Y’heard th’ Lee,” Gloria stretches her arms before pumping her fists. “To the Tangle we go then!”

“Hold on,” Victor sighs, holding a charging Gloria back by the hood of her sweater, making her let out a strangled ‘ack’ of surprise. He lets go of her as soon as she stops running for the Tangle before saying, “We’re not going in there without a plan.”

**_Newsflash, asshole. We’ve been heading towards Ballonlea with only the vaguest semblance of a plan in mind_ ** .

“I don’t know what you said, Bede,” Victor turns to the Espurr and flicks his nose. “But I’m at least ninety percent certain you just cussed me out and that’s rude.”

**_Don’t flick my nose!_ ** Bede’s paws fly up to his nose protectively as he glares at Victor.  **_Asshole._ **

Marnie rolls her eyes, adjusting her hold on Bede at his sudden movement. “Alright, so we need a plan. What did you have in mind?”

“I think we should split up!”

Gloria, Victor, and Bede all simultaneously turn to stare at Hop at his declaration - or, in Bede’s case, glare at him. The professor’s assistant seemed oblivious to his glare however as he asked, “What? What’s wrong with that?”

“Th’  _ las’ _ time we split up,  _ this  _ happened,” Gloria gestures dramatically with jazz hands to Bede, who looks around before choosing to psychically lift a nearby pamphlet with psionics and whack her upside the head with it. “OI!”

Victor groans and palms his cheek as Bede and Gloria get into an argument yet again. “She’s got a point, Hop. We can’t just… split up like the last time in the Weald. We need to stick together, with the Tangle being as unwieldy as Bede described.”

“Haha, unwieldy. Un-Weald-dy,” Gloria snickers before ducking as the pamphlet goes for her head again. “Ooooh, lemme a’ him, Marnie! Lemme a’ him!”

**_Like you can fucking get a hit in before I bite your ankles off._ **

“NO,” both Marnie and Victor say loudly at Bede and Gloria respectively before Marnie turns to Hop. “Victor’s right. We can’t split up this time - we need Bede to direct us through the safest route in the Tangle to get to Ballonlea as quickly as we can so we can hopefully get Annette and the others at Ballonlea gym to help as well, along with any Ballonlea residents willing to pitch in.”

Hop snaps his fingers. “Then the answer is simple. You and Bede lead the way, and we’ll follow in a straight line behind you. We’ll do a Falinks formation!”

“Don’t you mean a phalanx formation?”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

Victor drags his hand down his face in exasperation before grabbing Marnie by the shoulders and steering her up the steps to Stow-on-Side gym.  _ “Let’s just get moving to the Glimwood Tangle, everyone.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably going to draw up everyone's references eventually and post it on tumblr because i have no life other than pkmn rn


	9. The Glimwood Tangle

**CHAPTER 9: THE GLIMWOOD TANGLE**

* * *

Bede had always enjoyed the Glimwood Tangle.

Compared to the Slumbering Weald, the Glimwood Tangle was like a second home to him - though if you asked him if this was because he lived in the neighboring Ballonlea he wouldn’t outright deny it. Where mist covered the sleepy Weald, darkness took its place in the Tangle, the mushrooms aglow with soft green and pink and dotting the roots of the trees that shadowed the entire area. Where Corviknight and their Rookidee roosted among the treetops of the Weald, Aromatisse and their Spritzee danced around the lower regions of the Tangle’s flora.

The Glimwood Tangle was Bede’s safe haven, a place to find some time to himself away from his Gym Leader duties. Whenever he sought solace in the Tangle he’d let his Pokemon out of their Pokeballs at the entrance and give them the choice to go back into the gym to train on their own or to follow him deep into the Tangle as permitted by the guardian Trevenant. Usually his Rapidash and Hatterene would choose to follow of their own accord, though Hattie eventually drifted away every now and then to interact with the matriarch Hatterene of the Tangle and mingle with her kind. A good number of his other Fairy Pokemon would choose to wander Ballonlea instead, playing with the children, while the others simply would obediently wait at the benches by the edge of the forest, waiting for his return.

As the afternoon fades into dusk, Bede lets himself readjust to the feeling of being within the Tangle once more, except in a much smaller form, and in the arms of a very good friend, surrounded by friends. To look at the Tangle from the perspective of an Espurr was almost overwhelming - and who wouldn’t be overwhelmed, when the world around you has suddenly multiplied in size?

If he hadn’t already felt dwarfed by the Tangle before, he sure did now.

“I remember when we first went into the Tangle,” Victor murmurs from behind Marnie and Bede, looking around. The group had yet to go far from the mouth of the Tangle, but already the darkness had already ensconced all around them. “Couldn’t see like… two feet in front of me at all. Gloria tripped over a rock the instant she took a step forward.”

“AH DINNOT!”

“ **_Espurr,_ ** ” Bede hisses, and even without the translation they all recognize it as him saying  **_Keep it DOWN, you IDIOT._ **

“You did,” Victor repeats, and at Gloria’s poisonous look he only says in defense, “It’s not that big of a deal, Glo.”

“ _ Bede’s  _ gonna make a big deal a it.”

**_Well, NOW I have to because you brought it up._ **

“Why you-!”

Marnie, not so discreetly, gently but firmly steps on Gloria’s shoe to make her stop. Bede cackles in her arms as Gloria struggles to pull away from her hold, until finally she breaks free and ducks right back behind Victor, huffing. With that said, Victor turns back to Marnie, asking, “What about you?”

“Hm?” She raises an eyebrow.

“You were here in Ballonlea before we were,” He gestures to himself, Gloria, and Hop. “So how was your trip through the Tangle?”

Marnie thinks about it, and shrugs. “That’s a story for another day. Now come on, we have to cover more ground before it gets too dark to even see in here than it already is.”

“Fine…”

Seeing as that he was an Espurr, Bede’s eyes had adjusted much faster to the surroundings than his human friends’, and was now just waiting in Marnie’s arms. Discreetly he chances a peek up at Marnie, and as expected, not an ounce of fear is reflected upon her face as they walk. It made sense - Marnie trained in the Tangle often ever since she’d become Gym Leader. Ideally she’d be training near the waters that separated Circhester and Spikemuth, or even the grassland that separated Spikemuth from Hammerlocke, but she made the journey each time to Ballonlea via Corviknight taxi to enter the Tangle to train. She didn’t even particularly need to tell him when she was in the Tangle - somehow, he always had a second sense for when she was in it, training against some of the Sinistea and Polteageist that decided to bother their ‘camp’.

It was funny the first time he’d dropped in during one of her training sessions. Literally.

* * *

_ His fingers brush against the cool wood, the soft green glow of the mushroom caps gracing his face with a gentle glow. With each step he takes he’s sure the Tangle is  _ **_alive_ ** _ and  _ **_breathing_ ** _ all around him, shifting to accommodate his presence, acknowledging the arrival of the prince of the Tangle… or so Opal called him. _

_ He liked the nickname, truly. Made him feel even more special than Opal already made sure he felt in the past year as her successor. _

_ He hears the telltale sounds of porcelain clinking against each other, and knows that the Sinistea are at it again, making noise to annoy the local Hattrem into chasing them, the little buggers. With a snort, he changes course to follow the noise instead of the tree trunks, and almost immediately he can sense the Tangle follow right after him. _

_ Bede never really understood the Tangle like Opal did - not yet, anyway. He was still learning, and learning, and perhaps all his life he would be learning, and not all of its secrets would be revealed to him still. Opal herself had admitted to always finding something new about the Tangle even in her old age, but she’d always attributed it to the fae folk that lived within the Tangle’s heart. _

**_The fae love to play,_ ** _ she’d told him once.  _ **_But be careful, child. As faelike as you have become my dear, you are still quite a ways from being truly like them._ **

**_I have no idea what you’re talking about,_ ** _ he’d told her insolently, accidentally, and he’d received a brief and gentle whack to the thigh with her umbrella as a reminder of his respect.  _ **_Sorry, Gr- miss Opal._ **

**_It’s quite alright, my child,_ ** _ she’d said, a glint in her eye.  _ **_You’ll learn the rules of the fae yet._ **

_ “Moooreeeeel?” _

_ Bede blinks, and looks down at his feet. A Morelull peers up at him curiously before aiming to cling to his leg. With a wag of his finger he holds out a hand to it instead, and the Pokemon skitters into his palm. _

_ “Morl,” The little mushroom chirps, and with one of its three roots it points upward at a tree branch just above Bede’s head. “Morel.” _

_ Bede raises an eyebrow. “Up there?” _

_ “Relu.” _

_ “Well, alright-” Turning to face the tree it had pointed at, he stands on the tips of his toes and allows the Morelull to clamber up onto it. “But you know, you could have just climbed up here yourse-” _

_ He feels a rustling at his hip, and suddenly it feels like his weight has grown lighter. The familiar shape of a Morgrem darts past him and after the Morelull he’d helped, climbing up the branches - but in its mouth is a familiar item. “What the- hey! Get back here! That’s my Berry Bag, you little-!” _

_ “Morel! Morel!” The mushroom Pokemon giggles, leading the way. The Morgrem sits on the branch it was previously on and sticks its tongue out at Bede before clambering after the Morelull. _

_ With an aggravated groan, Bede moves to follow after it on the ground, but before he can do so the Morgrem  _ **_shrieks_ ** _ at him to stop, and he pauses, looking back up. The Morgrem hops to the more solid end of the branch and taps on it before pointing on the branch below it and pointing up. _

_ “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bede groans. _

_ “Grem, grem,” The Morgrem cackles. _

_ Huffing, Bede feels around for hand and footholds on the tree nearest to him before slowly making his way up. He was suddenly incredibly grateful for his learned ability to climb trees - something he’d picked up when he’d been much younger in the orphanage. It was easier to protect himself on higher ground - necessity had led to learning. _

_ “Grem, grem, morrrr grem,” The Morgrem taunts, waggling the Berry Bag at him. When did it get on a higher branch? “Morgrem morruuu grem!” _

_ Bede’s lips draw back over his teeth in a half-bared snarl, but he’s not  _ **_too_ ** _ angry; he’s all too aware of the encroaching threat of the local Hattrem community coming for his throat. His fingers dig into the bark a little more before he practically throws himself at the Morgrem, launching himself into the air- _

_ “Got you, you little bastard!” He crows victoriously, hands closing around the bag of berries… just as the Morgrem points below him. _

_ Bede looks down just as the branch he’d landed on snaps. _

_ He lands on a giant mushroom with an ‘OOMPH!’, scattering pollen everywhere and scaring the shit out of Marnie and her Pokemon. Peko yelps and practically barrels over Gobber, the Grimmsnarl tumbling backwards and landing on his back at the sudden impact. Percy, her Toxicroak, only blinks serenely at the situation as she holds a Sinistea upside down and making it wail for mercy. _

_ “WHAT THE FU-” Marnie claps a hand over her mouth before the whole curse gets out as Bede tumbles off the mushroom and flops onto the ground chest first, the air escaping out of him. The Fairy gym leader wheezes as he rolls on the grassy undergrowth until he hits the barrier that is Marnie’s footwear, and he looks up at her. _

_ Marnie stares back at him. _

_ “... Marnie,” He greets only semi-awkwardly, as though he hadn’t just fallen out of the sky onto a mushroom and scared her out of her wits. _

_ “... Bede,” She greets back.with just about the same amount of awkwardness. “Didn’t know y’were thinkin’ of becomin’ a Flyin’ type Gym Leader.” _

_ He wrinkles his nose at the thought, and suddenly all the awkwardness washes away as the look on his face makes Marnie snicker. “No offense, but ew, no. Me, in the Flying type colors? Not very flattering.” _

_ “You just fancy yourself swathed in Hatterene’s colors, you git.” _

_ “And if you tell anyone, nobody will ever believe you.” _

_ Marnie rolls her eyes, and holds out her hand to help him up. He gladly takes it. _

* * *

Bede sighs. Times were simpler back then. He was a human back then too. And had actual opposable thumbs.

**_You’ll have to watch out for the Morelull,_ ** Bede types out on Marnie’s Rotomphone, sending it out behind Marnie for the other three to read. He knew he didn’t have to warn Marnie because of her own frequent visits, but it never hurt to give them all a reminder.  **_If you step on one you’ll find the local Shiinotic coming after you._ **

“Great - first the Hattrem, an’ now the Shiinotic. Wha’ nex’, a forest a Trev’nant?”

**_Don’t tempt the fates, Gloria._ **

“What… are you doing?” Victor asks Hop, whose own Rotomphone is out and about snapping images of their surroundings as Hop jots down notes on a small notepad. “Hop, it’s  _ dark _ . You’re going to murder your eyeballs, mate.”

Hop sticks out his tongue a little as he writes down a note. “Just making myself a reminder to suggest to Sonia we investigate the accessible parts of the Tangle at some point. Hopefully with Bede’s assistance.”

**_You haven’t even asked my permission yet._ **

“Oh, sorry. Can we?”

**_No._ **

Victor bites the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at the flat look that crosses Hop’s face. Gloria, however, is less discreet, muffling her cackles poorly with her palms. “Very funny, Bede.”

**_Well, you DID ask, and I gave MY answer._ **

“You should go take it up with Opal, honestly,” Marnie tells Hop, purposely ignoring Bede’s betrayed look to give him an honest answer. “Opal and the other Gym Trainers, yeah? Bede may be Ballonlea gym leader, but Opal’s still his superior and all that.”

Bede looks up at her with half mock and half true betrayal in his eyes.  **_I trusted you. How could you spill the Ballonlea secrets of getting permission._ **

“Never swore me to secrecy, and honestly this is just common sense.”

**_Yes, but if he didn’t know beforehand he should’ve WORKED for it._ **

“You uh…” Victor snorts as the two look back at him. “You two care to share, or…?”

“Purr,” Bede shakes his head just as Marnie says, “Just talkin’ sense into him.”

“Ah. As you always do. Carry on.”

**_What’s THAT supposed to mean?!_ ** The Rotomphone practically slaps Victor in the face with how fast Bede sends it off to him with his message.

Victor holds up his hands in a non-threatening position. “Hey. I’m  _ just  _ saying that Marnie’s your voice of reason whenever you and either Gloria or Hop are butting heads. Which means literally all the time.”

“And you?” Marnie asks in amusement, an eyebrow raised. “What role do  _ you  _ play in this endless song and dance?”

The boy sighs, scratching his cheek. “I suppose I’m the mediator that never gets an ounce of sleep on their side of the playing field.”

**_Bah humbug._ **

“What are you, a Scrooge?”

**_BAH HUMBUG._ **

With a shake of her head and the corners of her mouth turning up in the slightest of smiles, Marnie nudges Bede gently with an index finger, nails tickling the underside of his chin and startling him. “Hey. Where to next, B?”

**_Oh._ ** Bede makes a soft ‘hrmmm’ sound, thoughtfully looking around and feeling around for the environment. Since he was off the ground, he couldn’t feel the Tangle as much as he usually did - only the vaguest sensations of the Tangle breathing and living like he did course through his tiny body as he tries to get a feel for the way it would change next.  **_… Take a right over there by the mushroom surrounded by Impidimp. At the next collective of mushrooms growing against a tree trunk like a staircase ask me again._ **

At his command, Marnie walks forward again, Victor, Gloria, and Hop following after her like ducklings. For quite a few minutes, the only sounds to be heard were the distant cries of Aromatisse and Spritzee, as well as the lonely wails of a Phantump every now and then. The mossy undergrowth below their feet muffled the sounds fo their wandering as Bede tries to focus, directing them through the Tangle the best he could.

And so far, everything seemed to be going well.

At least, until…

_ SNAP. _

“What was that?” Hop freezes, looking around suddenly.

The rest of the group go on alert, looking around as well. Gloria in particular had already quickly unlatched some of her Pokeballs from her belt, ready to unleash them at the slightest hint of danger. Victor only had his Intelleon’s Pokeball on hand, while Marnie’s hold on Bede tightens as she angles herself to grab her Grimmsnarl’s Pokeball. Hop’s fingers hover over his Rillaboom’s and Dubwool’s Pokeballs, and Bede?

Bede was getting the most  _ striking  _ feeling of doom.

_ SNAP. _

Those were obviously branches snapping, that was for certain. But because of how dark the Tangle was and its tendency to make things echo around them, none of them could see or tell where the sound was coming from.

The bushes to Gloria’s right rustle, and she strikes a battle stance, ready to throw out her entire team at once.

And then, she steps out.

“Oh no,” Victor breathes out. “It’s a Hattrem.”

The Hattrem peers up at their group, smiling. Waddling up to the group, its pigtails bring it forward closer and closer as the five of them back up step by step at the sight of the Hattrem - well, at least they  _ were  _ backing up, until something else decided to make itself known by approaching them from behind.

Hop looks behind them and swallows, but tries his best to keep his fear muted. “Another one.”

“There’s another one to our right,” Marnie says under her breath, seeing a third Hattrem approach out of the corner of her eye. “Gloria?”

“‘Nother one to our lef’,” Gloria confirms. “Looks angreh.”

They press their backs against each other, eyes not allowing any of the Hattrem to be out of anyone’s line of sight as they slowly circle around clockwise, the Hattrem circling them counterclockwise. The eerieness of the Hattrem’s smiles and their almost empty looks send chills down their spines - well, save for Bede, who’d raised a Hattrem and was thus used to this sort of bullfuckery from Hattrem.

“No strong emotions,” Marnie whispers to the others in reminder. “No sudden movements, and maybe they’ll leave us alone when we show we’re nothing to be toyed around with.”

The others nod discreetly at her words, and refocus on the…

“... Where’s the fourth Hattrem?” Victor asks tremulously.

“Trem!”

“Didididimp!”

“Wh-! Hey!”

“Espurr!”

Marnie breaks out of the circle in alarm, chasing after the fourth Hattrem. When the others turn to look at her, they see her arms empty, hands outstretched towards the Hattrem. While the Hattrem herself wasn’t carrying anything and doing anything besides running away, it was absolutely being accompanied by three other Pokemon - Impidimp.

And the Impidimp had snatched Bede from Marnie’s arms while she wasn’t looking.

**_Let GO of me, you absolute gremlins!_ ** Bede hollers as he wriggles in the hold of one of the Impidimps. At his cry, the Impidimps snicker amongst themselves before then proceeding to play Mankey in the Middle with him, knocking the wind out of the poor Espurr each time they caught him  _ right  _ before he hit the ground.  **_GAH! HEY! STOP- WH- OW- HEY!_ **

Victor grits his teeth the minute he feels Gloria tense up, and he reaches out to remind her to calm her emotions-

\- but she’d already launched herself and her Cinderace out to take out the other three Hattrem, screeching. The sudden burst of emotions makes the Hattrem all cry out simultaneously, and with their pigtail-like appendages the three of them all careen towards Gloria’s Cinderace to assault the two of them.

Hop, to his credit, had released Shep and decided that the best course of action was to ride the Dubwool through the Tangle. His legs pressed against his Pokemon’s sides, he holds out a hand to Victor and says, “Glo can take on the Hattrem! We need to circle around and corner the Hattrem and Impidimp into giving up Bede!”

“Shouldn’t we find Allister instead?! Bea said he’s in the Tangle!”

Hop thinks about it, and then nods. “Yeah, actually that’s probably a better idea. More hands are better than one and we’ll need his expertise on which Pokemon in the Tangle can help us out since Bede’s currently been Impinapped. Hattnapped. Bedenapped. Hey, not bad, another Bede pun-”

“ **_HOP._ ** ”

“RIGHT,” Hop declares loudly, trying to refocus. “Marnie can probably take on Impidimp, she’s got a Grimmsnarl and a Toxicroak to pummel these Fairy types into giving Bede up, right?” At Victor’s nod, Hop’s face sets itself into a look filled with determination. “Alright then! Now come on - take my hand, Vic!”

Victor takes his hand, and gets himself hauled up onto Shep. He wraps his arms around Hop’s torso, and with a determined battle cry from the Dubwool, Hop and Victor bound off to the north of the Tangle to search for Stow-on-Side’s Ghost leader among the mushrooms and the trees. Gloria, on her end, chases the Hattrem to the west with her Cinderace, and Marnie?

Marnie continues to chase the Impidimp and the Hattrem, deeper and deeper into the heart of the Tangle, unknowingly attracting the attention of the rest of the forest’s inhabitants with her presence.

_ Indee…? _

A female Indeedee peers out of the brush as Marnie passes by, and immediately picks up on her distress. The Pokemon taps her chin thoughtfully, and then nods to herself, before toddling after Marnie.

She needed to know the source of her distress - and if she could help in any way.


	10. Don't Play With the Fae

**CHAPTER 10: DON’T PLAY WITH THE FAE**

* * *

Victor instantly realizes something is up when the entrance to Ballonlea is nowhere in sight.

Shep rears back like a Mudsdale at Hop’s command, the young man frantically looking around for any sign of the path to the fairy town of Ballonlea. Unbeknownst to both him and Victor, however, the Tangle’s magic was fully in play; the exit was right before them, but to their eyes there is no route - only a tangle of branches and tree trunks, blocking the path. Or was there truly a path in the first place?

“I  _ swear  _ this was the path we took to Ballonlea the first time around,” Hop mutters before gently nudging Shep with his heel and urging the Dubwool to turn around. “Maybe we should have taken a left at the Swirlix dance party.”

“The  _ what? _ ”

“Didn’t you see the Swirlix dancing around a large mushroom earlier?”

Victor gives him an exasperated yet fond look. “You act as though I was looking for anything besides Allister or the exit.”

“Fair point,” Hop concedes before scratching under Shep’s ear and patting his side. The Dubwool rears back, and off again they bound into the Tangle, the two still on his back. “Allister should be around here somewhere. You don’t exactly get to confuse a boy in a mask for anything else. Except maybe a Phantump. Did you notice his mask is a lot like a Phantump’s stump’s face?”

“It’d make sense. He’s the Ghost-type Gym Leader of Stow-on-Side.”

“Yeah…”

Silence passes between the two of them for a few moments, punctuated only by the sounds of Shep’s hooves hitting the ground as they bound across the Tangle. A shadow crosses above them and briefly darkens the space above, making Victor look up as what was clearly a trio of Spritzee glide to and from the branches above. Their happy cries echo faintly as they travel onward and play aerial tag with each other, bumping into each other and doing loop-de-loops around the treetops.

“Vic?”

Victor looks away from the Spritzee to see that Hop is glancing at him sideways. “Yeah?”

“You alright mate?” There is the briefest flash of worry in his golden eyes that Victor doesn’t miss. “You’re awful quiet.”

“I don’t trust this place,” Victor admits, chin resting on Hop’s shoulder as they ride on. His gaze is distant, lowered to the ground, his arms wrapped around Hop. “You remember the stories, right?”

Hop considers his words with a hum. “Of the fairies that play tricks and replace children with changelings? The old wives’ tales?”

“Yeah…” Victor’s eyes scan their surroundings as Shep bounds over and across the tangling roots below them. It was a blessing that his fur did not catch onto any stray branches or thorns - from experience he knew that Hop’s Dubwool was particularly proud of his wool and would surely be driven to tears if it happened to be ruined irreparably. “I know Bede said that fairies were real, and everyone and their mother knows that the Glimwood Tangle has long been home to Fairy Pokemon of all kinds, so…”

Hop’s heel taps against Shep’s side, and the Dubwool slows to a trot like a Mudsdale would. He doesn’t look at Victor, but his next sentence is a mix of a question and a statement. “You’re scared.”

“Mostly of what they can reportedly do, yes,” Victor admits. “Are you? Scared of what they could do if they are real, I mean.”

“Hard not to be scared when proof that they exist is in the form of one of our friends turning into a Pokemon, mate,” Hop laughs, giving him his usual cheerful smile. It’s one that Victor knows he wears whenever he’s trying to reassure someone. “But I’m sure it’ll all turn out. It always does, doesn’t it? Zacian, Zamazenta… Eternatus… everything always turns out.”

Victor gives him a small smile in return, his gaze soft. “Right as always, Hop. Reassuring to know you’re still just as positive about things despite everything.”

“My positivity? Never died for long, mate - not with you and Gloria around,” Hop winks, and with a laugh the two gently headbutt each other before Hop turns back around and nudges Shep’s side, prompting the Dubwool to continue on. “Now enough lollygagging - we need to find either the exit, or Allister.”

“Always right behind you, Hop. Always right behind you.”

* * *

Marnie, to be completely frank, no longer had any idea where she was within the Tangle. How long had she been chasing them? Minutes? Hours? Inside the Tangle, things seemed to blur without the heavy influence of technology and only the ever-present influence of the Fairy types and actual fairies hanging in the air. Only her Rotomphone’s reliable clock kept her grounded now - 6:45pm.

_ It’s only been fifteen minutes? Wow.  _ She figured it hadn’t been that long, but it sure  _ felt  _ like it  _ had  _ been. Still… Bede was quite possibly in danger - if not because of being stolen away by Pokemon, then because he was injured and they were tossing him around. With an incoherent mumble, she calls out her Grimmsnarl, the hulking Pokemon emerging from a cloud of purple and landing gently on the grass. Gobber gives her an appraising look before noting Bede’s absence, and in curiosity he reaches over to poke the Love Ball he’s vaguely aware belongs to said missing Espurr.

“That’s right, Gobber,” Marnie takes out the Love Ball and opens it to show him that it’s empty. The Grimmsnarl peers down at it. “Bede’s been taken by Impidimp."

"Snaaauuuurl.”

"No, I'm well aware you're not like them,” Marnie reaches up to give her sweet Grimmsnarl a kiss on the cheek, the Pokemon making his species’ equivalent of contented purring as she combs through a portion of his hair. “But since you’re a Grimmsnarl, you most likely know how to corner them faster and get them to hand him over.”

“Grimmm snauuur?” Gobber laces his fingers together. “Gurriiiii.”

Marnie rolls her eyes. “You know I don’t understand what you’re sayin’, right?”

“Griiii.”  _ Oh, the cheeky bastard, he’s grinning at me! What  _ **_is_ ** _ he saying? _

Marnie lightly and playfully punches her Grimmsnarl on the shoulder. “Oi! None o’ this lollygaggin’! Bede’s in trouble - we need to get him already, Gobber!”

“Griimm snaaarrr,” Gobber seems to laugh before gently picking up his trainer and seating her on his shoulders. The average Grimmsnarl sat at exactly 5 feet tall - only a few inches shorter than Marnie, in fact, so the sight of the shorter Pokemon carrying his much taller trainer around on his shoulders is quite the sight. “Snarrrlll.”

Marnie nods, guessing what he meant by digging her arms past his hair and into the solid arm inside, holding on. Once secure in the fact that she was holding on, Gobber takes a step back, and charges forward and through the Tangle’s overgrowth, careful of the branches and bushes that could block their path.

_ Don’ worry Bede… I’m comin’. _

* * *

Of the many things Bede thought he’d see after being kidnapped (Impinapped?) by rowdier-than-usual Impidimp, Allister was not one of them.

Well. He supposed he should have  _ expected  _ it - they’d gone into the Tangle knowing he was  _ somewhere  _ in there, yes. But to have run into him surrounded by Phantump and facing off against an irritable gaggle of Hattrem while being carried off by Impidimp led by a Hattrem?

The sentence sounded better in his head.

“Treeeeem,” The biggest of the Hattrem demands, thumping a pigtail on the ground like a fist. She’s a Shiny one, the blues of her sisters a faded pinkish gray instead on her and the pastel pinks a darker shade of pink. “Haaaa ttreeeeem.”

“Phaaan…” A Phantump - the biggest, judging from its size - coos next to Allister’s head. “Phan phan?”

“Haaaaa!”

The Impidimp holding Bede cackles, and Bede briefly experiences the feeling of true fear before the Impidimp holding him decides that he’s yeetable material and does exactly that. The young man turned shiny Espurr tumbles through the air like a high speed Electro Ball straight at Allister’s head and bonks him right on the back of his head, eliciting a mumbled ‘ow’ from him and causing the Phantump to scatter a bit in a panic. The Hattrem fidget in front of Allister, but do not attack… yet. The Hattrem that had spearheaded Bede’s kidnapping melts into the gaggle of Hattrem until she is indistinguishable from her sisters.

Bede, face buried in Allister’s hair, slowly and agonizingly falls off like paint peeling from a wall.

Allister’s long-sleeves manage to catch him before he lands on the floor.

“...” Allister’s eyes blink past the darkness the eyeholes of his mask seem to cast on his face, and he peers down at Bede. Bede can feel his hands under the cloth as he no doubt looks him over, lingering on the bandages for a bit longer than usual. “... ‘Spurr not native here, right…? ... Crumbs. What’re you doing here then...?”

**_Well, if we were to be honest here, I’m native to Ballonlea now, AND I’m not an Espurr, so-_ **

“Oh… so you’re someone’s Pokemon then?”

Bede  _ freezes _ . When he looks back up at Allister properly, the boy seems to act as though talking to a Pokemon was perfectly normal in every sense of the word. His dark violet eyes gaze upon the Espurr, and if Bede had to describe it, if masks could express surprise that’d be the expression it had right now. The Phantumps descend back slowly, now also curious about the stranger in the human’s arms; the other Pokemon too go around to surround Allister, wondering about the strange new Pokemon in their midst. He didn’t feel Pokemon, nor did he sound Pokemon - but he didn’t sound human either. They were unsure of what to make of him, but they did somewhat trust Allister.

**_You… you understand me?_ ** Bede asks hopefully.

“I can’t understand you…” Allister admits, and Bede droops. “When you spoke earlier… you sounded like, um. Like you were trying to explain to me something. And you acted a bit human… so I thought…”

**_Figures,_ ** Bede murmurs bitterly, but not bitterly enough that the Hattrem react to him. He looks back up at Allister.  **_So nobody can understand me at all without a Rotomphone. Human, Pokemon… nobody really knows what the fuck I’m saying._ **

If masks could frown, Allister’s would have frowned already. “Sorry… I only really speak to Ghost-type Pokemon, normally. That’s… why I’m here, actually,” He looks up at the biggest Phantump, no doubt the leader, and it floats down to greet him eagerly. “I can speak to the Phantump… they talk to the other Pokemon, and… they tell me what they’re saying…”

**_Wish I had a universal translator._ **

“Phaaan?” A Phantump asks Bede curiously.

Bede, awkwardly, wriggles around.  **_Uh… and a Phantump to you too?_ **

“Tump, phan tu…” Phantump cries out mournfully to Allister, and the boy hums in thought. “Phaaan…”

“Phantump says he can’t understand you,” Allister clarifies for Bede’s benefit, shifting his hold on him. “Which… is very, very weird… hm… Hattrem?”

The shiny Hattrem looks at her sisters before bouncing up to Allister. “Ttreeem.”

**_Hi. I’m Bede, and I own a Hatterene named Hattie,_ ** Bede immediately says, staring deep into the shiny Hattrem’s eyes.  **_You might know her, sometimes you see her in the Tangle, she’s one of the few here that can Gigantamax, you know the drill, yadda yadda…_ **

The shiny Hattrem - privately Bede decides to call her Pinkie - cocks her head to the side. “Haaaa?”

**_You can’t understand a word I’m saying, can you?_ **

“Trem…?” Pinkie wonders out loud before looking up at the Phantump ringleader that Bede impulsively decides to refer to as Ring for the situation. “Haaa ttreem. Ha treem treeem.”

Ring looks to Allister waiting patiently, and shakes his head. “Phaaan.”

“They can’t understand you either… crumbs…” Allister shifts his hold of Bede to one arm and scratches his cheek under his mask thoughtfully. “You really are… a weird Pokemon, huh?”

Suddenly, the Impidimps’ ears perk up, and one of them cries out. Ring immediately translates it for Allister as a warning cry of something to come, and the boy freezes, muttering, “It’s okay… I’ll protect you from any intruders… ‘m a Gym Leader.” He reaches for one of the Dusk Balls on his belt, no doubt containing one of his precious Pokemon. “And ‘m here to help protect… the Tangle from intruders.”

“Phaaaan!” Ring gestures worriedly to Bede.

Allister cocks his head to the side before looking to Pinkie. “Hey… can you hold him for me?”

“Haaaa?” Pinkie blinks before Ring translates, and she shrugs. Allister then places Bede on her hat carefully. “Haaa haaat.”

“Hold him… he’s hurt,” is Allister’s quiet request before he takes a Dusk Ball and tosses out… “Ankou… protection…!”

**_Dusknoir!_ **

Bede didn’t usually see Allister’s Dusknoir out of the championship tournament battles Victor would host. On occasion, whenever he dropped by Stow-on-Side with Opal, he did glimpse Ankou helping out around the area and its further expansion, carrying boxes and building materials. Ankou, from his observations, was a stalwart and stern Pokemon that often acted like Marnie’s Grimmsnarl, but towards Allister in particular.

So it was no surprise that the instant he bursts out of the Dusk Ball, he takes on a protective stance in front of Allister and the other Pokemon. “Duuuuu…”

The undergrowth shakes, and all the Pokemon in the area poise themselves for battle…

… only for their “intruder” to be none other than Marnie and Gobber, the girl lighting up considerably at the sight of Bede. Her smile is of genuine relief and delight, unpracticed and natural.

**_Marnie!_ ** Despite himself, relieved excitement spikes through Bede’s tiny body at the sight of the Spikemuth native, sitting on her Grimmsnarl’s shoulders, and unconsciously he shifts and tries to move closer to her - which meant that he had crawled off of Pinkie’s hat-

\- and that he landed face first on the ground again, having not managed to catch himself quick enough with psionics.

The Impidimp and other Hattrem giggle at his misfortune.

Marnie hops off of Gobber worriedly as Allister cocks his head to the side, curious as she goes over to pick up the shiny Espurr that had been flung at the back of his head. He’s quiet as he observes the way in which the Espurr’s body language seems to insist that he’s fine as Marnie fusses over him the way he’d seen her fuss over her Morpeko.

“Purrurr espurr!” Bede complains as Marnie carefully examines every inch of him.  **_I’m FINE, Nie, goodness. The only thing I’ve lost right now is my dignity and my rights to walk._ **

Marnie gives him a flat look, having picked up on the general gist of his words before checking on his bandaged leg again. “Haven’t changed these in a while… let’s sit down and get to them, alright?”

“Espurr.”  **_Okay._ **

As Marnie promptly sits cross-legged on the Tangle floor, Allister makes his move and approaches her, blinking curiously. Ring floats closer as Allister sits  _ seiza _ -style in front of Marnie, catching her attention as he drapes his sleeves over his knees.

“Sorry for not greetin’ you at first, Al,” Marnie apologizes. “It’s good to see you.”

Allister hums. “‘S’ok, Marnie… you seemed worried ‘bout this Espurr, so I didn’ say anything.” He’s silent for a bit as Marnie unwraps the bandages on the Espurr’s leg, and at the sight of the wound he closes his eyes. “Crumbs, Marnie… that’s awful.”

“I know,” Marnie mutters as Bede blanches, looking over the state of the wound. “Should be gone in a few days, or at least scar over, yeah. Right now it’s gross as all hell.”

“‘M’sorry.”

“Not your fault, Al. ‘S’ok.”

While all this is going on, Gobber is conversing quietly with Pinkie in the background, the shiny Hattrem explaining her woes to the taller Fairy-type as he ponders a solution. Ring, noticing that he’s conversing with them, floats over and chatters away at him as he grunts out a response. His answer seems to lighten the mood, because a Hattrem in the back of the group cheers, hopping up and down excitedly. Her sisters follow shortly, cheering right with her.

“Looks like your Grimmsnarl did the work for me,” Allister notes, listening to Ring’s chattering when it comes back near his ear. “... Huh… he offered to deal with the intruders himself.”

Marnie stiffens. “Gobber!”

“Snaaaarl,” is the Grimmsnarl’s response to his trainer before continuing to speak to the Hattrem.

In the background, Ankou, Allister’s Dusknoir, watches as the Impidimp that had kidnapped Bede try to climb him, but fail miserably each time because he was a ghost type. While not laughing, anyone could tell he was amused at their attempts to turn him into a playground. “Duuuusk.”

“He says, and I quote,” Allister translates very slowly from Ring. “‘Not a big problem in the Tangle. Just poachers. Can destroy them. Make Hattie proud.’ Who’s Hattie?”

**_Hattie?_ ** Bede’s brow furrows. That’s his Hatterene’s name. Why did Gobber want to make his Hatterene proud?

Marnie too is befuddled, mouth twisted into a curious frown. “That’s Bede’s Hatterene, though if you asked me why he’d want to make her proud I wouldn’t be able to really tell you, Al.”

“Speaking of Bede… this is his jurisdiction,” Allister gestures to the Tangle around them. “Isn’t it? He should be the one primarily dealing with the poachers.”

Marnie bites her lip, her gaze flitting down towards Bede in her arms. “Um…”

“Snaaaarl. Grimmm snaaaaarl,” Gobber says again at Allister’s question, and this time Ring is  _ excited,  _ chattering at Gobber as the Grimmsnarl nods and shakes his head for each question. Finally, the Phantump does a loop-de-loop in midair before chattering away to Allister.

Allister’s hands reach up, and the mask falls off, revealing his wide-eyed stare - directed specifically at Bede.

“Bede?” The boy asks incredulously.

Silence.

Marnie looks at Gobber, her face showing mixed emotions ranging from perplexed to frustrated to delighted. It was an odd combination of feelings. “You absolute madman.”

“So it’s really Bede, then?” Allister lowers his face down to stare at Bede a little more closely, but with respect to personal space. “... Bare your fangs at me and flop an ear, if you truly are Bede.”

Bede does so, though with a little difficulty regarding the ear part.

With a sigh that encompassed more breathlessness than hopelessness, Allister leans back on his heels again. “... Crumbs.”

“You really do like saying crumbs.”

“Got nothin’ to say other than it… just… wow,” Allister breathes out, picking up his mask and putting it back on his face. “How did this happen?”

**_The fae,_ ** Bede answers at the same time Marnie says, “The fae.”

“... The fae?” Allister cocks his head to the side again. “... What did you do to piss ‘em off, Bede?”

**_I didn’t do anything!_ ** Bede rages, wriggling in Marnie’s hold at the insinuation. Marnie struggles as he continues,  **_The NERVE, Allister! I would NEVER!_ **

“So you’re saying you didn’t do anything to anger them?” At Bede’s vehement headshake, Allister hums. “Then it must be something temporary, a gift even.”   


Marnie stares at Allister. “A gift? How could this be a gift?”

“Bede,” Bede looks up at the Ghost-type trainer. “When did you get the wound?”

“Oh, right,” Marnie shifts Bede to one of her arms and pulls out her Rotomphone. With his main form of communication back, Bede is eager to type out a response to Allister’s question.  **_A Stunfisk bit me in the Slumbering Weald before I fell off the side of a cliff._ **

Allister reads the message and hums. “Were you an Espurr then too?”

**_No._ **

“So you got bitten before you became an Espurr?”

**_Yes._ **

“Do you remember what happened next?”

**_I woke up an Espurr after a fall I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t have survived with all my bones intact._ **

“ _ Ah, _ ” Allister breathes, and the tone of his voice makes both Marnie and Bede look up at him. “Then it is a gift from the fae. I ‘member… was younger when I got lost in the Tangle, once.”

Marnie takes hold of Bede in both arms again as she notes, “You’ve never told us this before.”

“Bea likes to pretend it didn’t happen,” Allister admits. “Or acts like it didn’t bother her a lot. But it did. I know my sister… she was worried a whole lot. I was just ten… got lost with my Gengar back when he was still a Gastly. He tried to find a way out with me, but… we couldn’t figure it out. I was scared.”

Bede rests his chin on Marnie’s arm as Allister continues, “Then… I met someone. I didn’t know who or what it was… if it was Pokemon or not… but they reminded me a lot of my mother. The energies… dark, but not unkind. Bright, but not too bright. And Jack… my Gastly didn’t seem afraid of it. So I followed it, and when I blinked, I was in Ballonlea. Was my first time too… so everythin’ was so magical.”

“That’s when I met miss Opal, when she was a little younger,” Allister hums, remembering Opal’s appearance back then. “She was probably around… eighty one or so, when I met her then. Pretty young.”

**_What did she look like?_ ** Bede types out.  **_Same as she does now?_ **

“Sort of, but definitely younger. It’s not really somethin’ I can describe,” Allister scratches his cheek under his mask. “But that was when I met her for the first time that I could remember… she told me that the fae gave me a gift for being a good boy and following them out of the Tangle.”

**_What was it?_ **

Allister taps his mask.

“They… they gave you this mask?” Marnie asks.

“More or less,” Allister shrugs. “I mean… I’ve had this mask before, but… I think the gift is that… nobody gets to see my face unless I explicitly choose to take it off and show anyone. You’ve heard of me having a hundred masks, right?”

“On your League Card.”

“Almost true… it’s all just this mask, really,” Allister taps the mask again. “I don’t really question it. Miss Opal… she says it’s the magic of the fae that tricks the human’s eyes and makes them think I have many to replace the mask, but really it’s just the same mask reappearing on my face.”

**_So you’re straight up just walking around with fairy magic on you._ **

“Sounds weird when you say it that way,” Allister hums, flailing his trailing sleeves around. “But I don’t mind. You could say that’s why I’m here right now… I’m not in their debt, not really. But I’d rather they didn’t come to collect what I willingly give.”

**_Sounds like something Opal told me,_ ** Bede grumbles.  **_The fae always come to collect when you are in their debt._ **

“Yeah,” Allister glances over his bandaged leg. “So I’m guessing that their gift is that they made you into a Shiny Espurr and saved your life.”

**_How._ **

“Well… Pokemon heal faster than humans,” The Ghost-type trainer explains as Ankou hovers behind him, stern and stoic. The Impidimp continue to play by his trailing ghostly end. “The logic must be that they thought you’d heal faster if you were a Pokemon and not a human.”

Marnie shakes her head. “But that doesn’t make sense.”

“The fae have never made sense,” Allister agrees. “You’ll probably be back to being the Bede we know when you’re all healed up. That’s usually how this sort of thing works.”

**_Usually,_ ** Bede stresses.  **_Ugh. I suppose I’ll deal with it_ ** .

“As though you haven’t enjoyed using an Espurr’s psionics to whack the others on the head with a stick, you cheeky tart,” Marnie teases, and if Espurrs could blush Allister was positive Bede would have been blushing already under all that fur. “Don’t lie to us.”

**_Traitor. I trusted you with my secret._ **

“Well, as fun as this was…” Allister reaches up to grab Ankou’s outstretched hand, and the Pokemon pulls him back up on his feet. “If your Grimmsnarl’s going to deal with it, you’re gonna… have to leave him here for a few days. I’ve been talking to the Hattrem and Trevenant for a while… they need him.”

Marnie nods, moving to stand up as well. Gobber looks at her as she says, “‘S alright, Gobber. If you want to stay and help for a bit… I’ll be in Ballonlea, anyway, okay?”

“Grimm snaarrrl.”

“I love you too,” Marnie smiles softly and butts heads with her Pokemon before Pinkie cries out and hops into the undergrowth. The Phantump and other Hattrem follow after her, as do the Impidimp bothering Ankou, until finally Gobber trudges after them and disappears into the Tangle.

Allister sighs in relief. “Glad that’s over… want to go home and eat dinner with Bea.”

“And we need to get to Ballonlea… do you want to just come over to Ballonlea with us instead?” Marnie offers. “I don’t think Opal will mind… and Gloria and the others will be glad to see you.”

“They’re here too, huh...” Allister nods. “Yeah. I’ll go with you.”

Suddenly, the sound of something large ramming into a tree echoes in the Tangle, and Spritzee and Aromatisse flutter frantically out of their hiding places at the tremor of the tree.

“... That’s probably them, isn’t it?” Allister guesses.

Marnie groans as Bede flatly types out,  **_Of fucking course._ **


	11. Ballonlea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i back at it again? idk
> 
> we be wrapping things up soon

**CHAPTER 11: BALLONLEA**

* * *

When the three Gym Leaders go off to seek the source of the sound, they’re greeted to the sight of Hop and Victor trying to pull Shep’s head out from a hole in a tree trunk. The Dubwool’s panicked bleating echoes inside said trunk with each failed attempt, and with each failure Hop says, “No worries, Shep - we’ll getcha outta there! Can’t recall you like this or you’ll take the tree with you!”

“DUUUUU!”

“Noooo, don’t cry, mate! We’ll get you out!”

“Glad to see you two’re doin’ real shiny in the Tangle,” Marnie comments, attracting their attention. At the sight of Marnie and Bede and Allister, Victor gives them a relieved smile before Shep accidentally kicks him in the stomach with his hind legs and knocks the wind out of him. Marnie winces as Victor doubles over with a wheeze. “Ow.”

“No,  _ no,  _ I’m  _ fine, _ ” Victor wheezes, waving her off. “Just… just help Shep… I’m going to go sit on down over here…  _ gack _ …”

**_Oh, for the love of- let me handle this,_ ** Bede types out on the Rotomphone before gesturing for Marnie to move him closer to where Shep’s head is stuck in the trunk. Curiously Marnie holds him by the torso and brings him closer, and once he’s in range Bede pats around on the edges of the hole with his paws, as if looking for something.

“Woooool?” Shep asks plaintively.

“Purrurr esp,” is Bede’s mild-mannered response, surprising mostly everyone else listening in even though they couldn’t directly understand him. Eventually, Bede’s eyes light up, and he pats the spot on the rim of the hole right under Shep’s head with his paw before gesturing for the Rotomphone again.  **_Hop, put your hands on both sides of where I patted the rim. And then tell Shep to try and dig in deeper in the hole, and THEN try to pull out._ **

Hop raises an eyebrow, but for once doesn’t argue as he puts his hands where Bede told him to put them. With the hands in place, he then tells his beloved Dubwool, “Okay Shep, when I say go, ram  _ deeper  _ into the hole then  _ yoink  _ yourself out. Okay?”

“Dubwoo?!”

“Trust me! Er, uh, trust Bede?” Hop answers. “Yeah. Trust in Bede!”

Marnie snorts. “Now there’s a sentence I don’t hear every day.”

**_You got it on recording?_ **

“Not with you holding that phone, no.”

**_Good thing I tapped the record button, then._ **

“You cheeky bastard.”

“GO!” Hop hollers, and with a determined  _ baaaaa  _ Shep makes an attempt to gallop, his head lodging deeper into the hole. His front hooves slam against the roots of the tree he’s stuck in, and that seems to cause a reaction, because the next minute the Dubwool is flying  _ out  _ of the tree as though the tree itself spat him out.

Hop goes flying along with him - right into the waiting arms of Gloria’s Cinderace Wildfire, who’d walked in at just the right moment through the undergrowth.

“Deeeeer?” Wildfire stares down at one of his Trainer’s boys before gently letting Hop back down, the researcher thanking him profusely for the sweet save. At the sight of Shep upturned, the Cinderace moves over to roll him back upright just as Gloria herself walks through the bushes, stretching.

Allister blinks. “... Back together again.”

“That should be all of us then,” Marnie muses as Gloria gives her a wave. “You think we’ll be able to find the way out now?”

**_Maybe?_ **

Hop moves over to them, stretching his arms before grinning. “Thanks for the save, Bede! We owe you one big time, mate!”

**_You already owe me big time in general for helping with your research,_ ** Bede says dryly.  **_But yes, I suppose I will put this down on your tab. When I come to collect you must be ready._ **

“Spoken like a true fae bastard,” Gloria teases when she comes over and reads his message on the Rotomphone. “But hones’ly, where’dcha go, Hop? How’d Shep get stuck in ‘ere anyway?”

Hop scratches at his cheek as Victor manages to recover enough to stand up and come over. “See, that’s the thing? I remembered the way to Ballonlea and we were riding on Shep, but when we followed the path, all we saw was branches! It’s like the entrance was never there!”

“Th’ Tangle  _ does  _ change a lot…” Allister supplies, making the small group turn to him. “Tricks you… doesn’t always let you out immediately.”

Bede is thoughtful as he types out a response.  **_The Tangle is alive, in layman’s terms. It knows what it contains and what doesn’t belong, and shifts to accommodate these things as such._ **

“Meanin’?”

**_I guess you could call this whole place a faerie of its own?_ ** Bede’s not exactly sure  _ how  _ to describe it at first, glancing around his surroundings thoughtfully before he remembers something Opal told him before.  **_Oh. Yeah. The entirety of Ballonlea is surrounded by mushrooms, and a circle of mushrooms is best known as-_ **

“A fairy circle,” Marnie realizes with a soft gasp. At Bede’s and Allister’s nods, she asks, “But then… how do people come in and out of the Tangle, and in and out of Ballonlea? If I’m rememberin’ fairy tales correctly, aren’t they supposed to trap you?”

Bede, despite the fact that he had too little shoulders, shrugs.  **_Trapping everyone forever wouldn’t be as fun as letting them come and go of their own accord until they choose to stay, I guess._ **

“Tha’s morbid, innit?” Gloria comments.

**_It’s how the stories go. At least, according to Opal, anyway._ **

“Either way… we should get goin’ already,” Marnie says decisively, once again adjusting her hold on Bede in such a manner that he had a better view of the Tangle around them. “I recognize the area a little, but that’s about as useful as saying I recognize what a Pokemon Center looks like.”

**_Don’t be so hard on yourself,_ ** Bede types out before looking around, squinting.  **_… Hop, where’d you say you saw the path to the entrance to Ballonlea?_ **

“Ah- uh- hold on-” Hop gets on top of Shep to get a better look before pointing to the east, somewhere beyond the undergrowth. “We came somewhere from there… I think. Vic?”

“Little more south than that.”

Hop adjusts. “There?”

“Yeah.”

**_Then onward bound we go, then,_ ** Bede types out. With little ceremony, Marnie trudges forward, and carefully the others follow.

It’s eerily quiet for the most part, what with most of the excitement having been the whole debacle with Shep and the Hattrem brigade. The only sounds that occasionally break the silence are that of the occasional Spritzee, wings frantically fluttering through the air, and skittering noises that Bede knew by heart belonged to Morelull looking for places to take root.

**_Duck,_ ** Bede instructs, and Marnie bows her head, her chin resting against the top fluff of Bede’s head as they pass under a high-arching root. Gloria, Allister, and Victor do the same for the most part, while Hop presses himself as flatly as possible into Shep’s fur, seeing as that he was still on the Pokemon. It was a very narrow clear for them, but they managed to make it through.

“I recognize this place for real now,” Marnie says after a few more minutes of walking. Bede looks up at her face, and sees gentle green light from the glowing mushrooms around them bouncing off and outlining the curves of her face. “Bede- y’remember, don’t you?”

**_Hm?_ **

“We walked this way once to Ballonlea, after Opal’s Alcremie went to fetch us for dinner because you’d forgotten the time,” Marnie gestures to the ground, and when Bede looks down, he sees tinier mushrooms of blue and yellow lighting their way, giving off a faint glow. “Remember?”

Bede narrows his eyes before they widen. He did remember.  **_Then that means we are definitely close. Marnie, can you look around for me and tell me if you can see if the road splits ahead? There’s only one more split before Ballonlea._ **

“Ah’ll go!” Gloria volunteers, sprinting forward as Victor buries his face in his hands. A minute or so later, they hear her shout, “Oi vey, c’mere all a ya! There’s somethin’ y’gotta see!”

Marnie glances sideways at Hop, Victor, and Allister, brow furrowing in concern before she takes off, running in the direction Gloria had gone. The boys are hot on her heels - with Hop recalling Shep for easier travel on foot - as they spot Gloria standing in the middle of the road, staring down at something in front of her. They glance around her.

“Deeee!”

“Creeeeme....”

“That’s an Indeedee,” Victor notes. They watch as the Indeedee toddles up to Marnie, smiling and waving its little arms around. “I know they’re native here, but what’s it want with Marnie?”

Bede looks down at the Indeedee.  **_I… think it wants me?_ **

“Tha’s freaky. Indeedee gotta crush on ye, Bede?”

At Gloria’s words, Marnie kicks backwards. When she hears Gloria yelp in pain, a guilty but satisfied smirk crosses her face briefly. The sight of it makes Bede stare.

“Deeedeee,” The Indeedee repeats, patting on Marnie’s leg. “In deeee? Indeeed?”

“I… think it’s askin’ if I’m okay,” Marnie says, crouching down to meet its eye level. “Yeah, I’m okay, Indeedee. Dunno why you were worried in th’ first place, but don’t worry. I’m all fine an’ dandy over here.”

The Indeedee smiles before looking at Bede. She puts a paw on the bandaged leg thoughtfully. “Dee?”

“Well,  _ he’s  _ hurt,” Marnie admits. Bede feels her hand reach up to scratch under his chin unconsciously, but he does not pull away. “We’re taking him to Ballonlea, so we’re gonna have t’go, okay? You don’t need to worry ‘bout us.”

“...” The Indeedee narrows her eyes before stepping back. Something like pink energy seems to gather around the Pokemon as the Indeedee slowly mutters, “Dee dee dee…”

Hop’s eyes widen. “That’s Heal Pulse! Is it trying to-!”

“Deeee!”

Before Marnie’s eyes, Bede is suddenly covered in a faint pink glow as waves of pink pulse from Indeedee herself, her eyes shut tightly in concentration. Blinking rapidly, Bede observes the Heal Pulse as Indeedee opens her eyes again and falls over on her rear, looking tired. The Heal Pulse had felt… a lot like warm soup, in a way. Or warm curry. Soothing, like a balm - it made sense in this case that it was a healing move.

Bede wiggles his injured leg. Propping a leg up, Marnie kneels on one leg on the Tangle floor as she goes to peek at his injury before sighing. His heart sinks.  **_No luck?_ **

“No luck,” Marnie confirms. “Sorry, Indeedee. We know you tried.”

Indeedee frowns, but bows her head. In that moment, the other Pokemon makes itself known with a loud reminding cry of “Creeeeeeemie!”, and when the others look up, they meet the eyes of a very familiar Alcremie.

“That’s…”

**_Parfait!_ ** Bede says instead of typing, perking up. He recognized Opal’s beloved Alcremie  _ anywhere _ . Wriggling in Marnie’s hold, he waves at Parfait.  **_That’s Parfait! That means Ballonlea should be-_ **

“Right here.”

The humans around him gasp. When Bede looks up, he sees familiar eyes staring down at him with a warm, loving gaze.

Opal.

* * *

Opal doesn’t ask questions - at first.

Ballonlea really hadn’t been that much farther ahead from where Opal and Parfait had found them, but it had still worried Bede nonetheless that she’d ventured into the Tangle with only Parfait out. He trusted Parfait, yes, but Opal was still old, and he really didn’t like the idea of him not being around to at least accompany her through the Tangle. She really loved to worry him unintentionally sometimes, didn’t she?

The thought makes him sigh exasperatedly, but it’s tinged with affection for the old woman who’d taken him in.

They must have been quite a sight - Opal in the lead, her beloved Parfait safe in her Pokeball already as she leisurely walks towards the house she and Bede called home. Marnie second in line, Bede in her arms, with Gloria in third, Hop in fourth, and Victor bringing up the rear. Residents of Ballonlea that recognized the motley crew as Bede’s friends and as important members of the Galar league wave to them in greeting before going back to their duties.

Bede breathes in sharply through his nose, and exhales in relief. The bright glow of the mushrooms all around them bathes everyone in a cool blue-green light - seeing that the biggest of the mushrooms were blue and green. Fireflies dance around the area, one even resting on Gloria’s nose briefly before taking off again at her sneeze. A group of Chinchou sail above their heads, going to rest on a mushroom cap and chattering at each other.

It was  _ so  _ good to be home after all that.

“DAAAAAA!”

“What was  _ that?!”  _ Victor covers his ears at the loud Pokemon cry.

Opal chuckles. “You’ll have to forgive the poor dear. That would be Bede’s dear Rapidash. He’s been worried sick ever since Bede didn’t come home the other day.”

**_Ah._ **

“About that…” Marnie begins, but she’s interrupted by Opal holding up a hand. “M-Miss Opal?”

“Explanations can wait,” Opal says gently, serenely. “For now, you lot rest up while I go prepare dinner, alright? I'll be feeding his and my Pokemon before that as well.”

**_Aaaaah…!_ ** Bede was usually the one helping her make dinner, so the reminder that he hadn’t been around for a day or so makes panic flare up in him briefly. Marnie seems to sense it, because suddenly Bede finds her hand petting his head fluff once more. It did work to calm him down - but only a little.

Marnie nibbles on her lower lip thoughtfully. “... Do you need help?”

“Kind of you to offer, dear,” Opal smiles as she opens the door to the house, and they all cram themselves inside as she shuts the door behind them.

Marnie goes to set Bede down on the couch as Allister sits next to him, picking him up and sliding a pillow under him before putting him back down again. Bede takes this opportunity to flop over on the throw pillow with a sigh of undisguised relief, relieved to be back home, even as an Espurr.

“Home sweet home, huh?” Allister asks him softly.

Bede groans. “Es purrrr.”

As Allister patiently waits by his side and Gloria goes to lounge on the other loveseat spread-eagle and unladylike (he was  _ sure  _ Opal would chastise her for it later), Bede hears Hop and Victor still moving around, and he lifts his head up to watch as they look up at the pictures hanging on the walls, hands behind their backs.  _ What the hell are those two up to now? _

“Yo, Bede,” He blinks at being addressed by Hop. When he turns to focus on the purple-haired boy, he points to a photograph. “This is you, isn’t it?”

Bede turns his head to Allister, who takes this as a signal to pick him up carefully to get a closer look. His hold on Bede isn’t like Marnie’s - it’s done  _ very  _ gingerly, as though he was afraid of dropping or hurting him, or getting hurt himself. Bede didn’t blame him though - he’d made his own track record of biting and scratching, and he’d live with it.

When he’s close to the picture, he looks up, and his eyes widen. It’s a photograph of him in the middle of a battle with his Hatterene, commanding her to use Dark Pulse based on the energy swirling around Hatterene’s clawlike hand ornament. The picture didn’t  _ look  _ like it’d been taken recently though - with how faded it was, one might’ve mistaken it for a photo taken 50 years ago.

Victor lends him his Rotomphone as he types,  **_That… IS me, yes._ **

“Why does the photo look so  _ old? _ ” Victor asks curiously.

“Prob’ly editin’,” Gloria comments from the sofa. “‘S’all th’rage.”

**_No, it’s… I think it’s just a thing that happens here in Ballonlea,_ ** Bede guesses before looking up at the picture next to it.  **_You see that photo? It’s also very recent, but it’s already browned like the picture of Opal over there when she was younger._ **

Hop looks up, and boggles. “That’s Opal? Wow. She’s really pretty.”

**_Yeah,_ ** Bede nods. He’s inclined to agree - Opal, according to many of the older residents of Ballonlea, had possessed a faelike beauty to her in her younger years especially. He definitely saw what they meant.  **_Kind of weird to think about how old she is now._ **

“You think she’s gonna live up to a hundred?” Victor asks him quietly.

Bede glances over in the direction of the kitchen. While he doesn’t see them, he can hear Marnie and Opal talking in low voices.  **_Knowing her?_ ** He hears something clatter in the kitchen, and the sound of Marnie apologizing.  **_… Yeah. Probably. If she hasn’t been lying about her age all this time, anyway._ **

“Maybe you’ll live up to a hundred too by sheer proximity of living with her, Bede,” Hop says as Allister takes him back to his cushion. The two boys cram themselves into the sofa Gloria had been stretched out over, so the girl had been forced to sit properly instead. “And before you do, you should absolutely share her secrets. We should  _ all  _ die together.”

**_Morbid._ **

“At least it’s powered by friendship!”

Bede didn’t want to think about Opal dying any time soon. Or at all, really. He’d only  _ just  _ gotten a family - he didn’t know  _ what  _ he’d do if he’d lost it again.

Well, he  _ did,  _ technically. He’d carry on the Ballonlea gym legacy, lead the gym, be a powerful trainer, and take care of Ballonlea like she had. But he didn’t know what he’d do without her guiding hand behind him, or her kind smile. Annette and the others were getting on in their years as well - which meant eventually, all of them would leave him behind one after the other. He’d be alone again.

The thought makes him shudder.

As if picking up on his discomfort, Marnie’s head pokes out from the kitchen doorway. “Dinner’s ready, you lot. Get washed up or somethin’.”

**_Bathroom’s down the hall to the left,_ ** Bede types out when Victor, Hop, and Gloria look at him. Allister, having already been over many times, was already on his way to the bathroom. Bede looks up as Marnie walks over and picks him up.  **_Nice to know you haven’t forgotten about me._ **

“Oh, hush you,” Marnie says, and there’s a pinkness to her cheeks that leaves Bede wondering why exactly this was so. Marnie was not one to blush often. “You’re the reason we’re all here, after all, cheeky bloke.”

**_True. Thank you, by the way,_ ** he types out earnestly.  **_You didn’t have to help me out, but you all did._ **

Marnie’s gaze softens. “What’re friends for, eh?”

**_… Thank you._ **

“You’re welcome.”

Bede lets himself be carried over to the dining room as the other four start trudging in, taking seats at the table. Initially he’s concerned that Marnie would try setting him on the chair, but much to his relief he’s placed on top of the table instead next to her plate, his own plate offset against the rest and in front of him. He looks around for utensils as Opal carefully takes a seat across from him and Marnie.

The dinner starts off quietly - well, for the most part. Gloria is delighted for the most part by the cullen skink, and rambles about her mother’s own recipe for it to Allister sitting next to her. Bless his soul, he was trying his best to listen even though he didn’t seem very keen on being the target. Victor and Hop, on the other hand, were sharing looks from all the way across the table, seeing as that they were on opposite ends.

“So, Bede, is it doing any better?”

Everyone silences.

Bede blinks up at Opal.  **_Huhwuh?_ **

“Articulate, Bede,” Opal reprimands. “A gentleman does not stumble over his words even when caught off guard.”

Bede shares a bewildered look with Marnie before he looks up at his guardian. His cullen skink goes untouched.  **_You can understand me?_ **

“Your body language is very easy to read, my dear,” Opal says matter-of-factly. “Well, that, and I’ve already asked that the language barrier more or less be broken for me between the two of us just to spare you further grief. You look very pink, by the way.”

A half-hysterical laugh bubbles up in the back of Bede’s throat. Of course she’d point that out. But also-  **_You- you ASKED for-?_ **

“Ah, ah, that’s all I’ll say,” Opal smiles before dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. “Thank you for bringing him home, by the way, all of you. But especially you, Miss Marnie - I hear you’ve been his constant companion this whole trip.”

Had Bede been human, his ears would have turned red as Marnie answers honestly, “Wasn’t a problem at all, Miss Opal. Would do anythin’ for Bede - he’s a friend, and I’m sure he’d say the same ‘bout me.”

“Just a friend?” Opal presses.

Did Marnie’s ears turn pink? “... A very close friend,” she admits.

“I see,” Opal hums before turning to Bede once more. “As you’ve probably deduced by now because I know you’re an intelligent young man, this situation of yours… it’s the work of the fae.”

**_Yeah, I figured._ **

“It’s a gift, certainly - not a curse,” Opal chastises. “They told me that it should all heal up in a few days, give or take - a week at most?” At his stare, she adds, “It’s either you allow it to naturally heal, or perhaps let yourself evolve.”

Hop leans forward, eyes wide and sparkling with interest. “ _ Evolution?  _ Can Bede evolve?”

“He’s physically a Pokemon,” Opal waves her hand. “It is most definitely possible if he’s impatient enough. They told me so.”

“Wai- wait, they talked t-  _ you talked to  _ **_fairies?_ ** ” Victor stares at Opal incredulously before shaking his head. “You know what? This shouldn’t be so unbelievable. You’re Opal. But-  _ fairies are real?” _

Opal gently flicks his wrist, making him yelp. “Do not say that out loud, child. Words of disbelief are dangerous to the fae folk - you wouldn’t want their magic to die and leave Bede trapped like this forever, would you?”

Bede yelps.  **_Victor!_ **

“Shite, I’m sorry!” Victor tugs on his beanie in a mild panic. “Hope that didn’t like- delay anything-”

“It shouldn’t have, but do be careful next time of what you say in the presence of fae,” Opal warns sternly before placing a hand on top of Bede’s injured leg. “Either way you choose… I’ll be here to support you the best I can, my child. Your friends are free to stay if they want, though it’d be rather cramped considering the only room with much space is Bede’s room.”

Allister shakes his head. “... Have t’go home ‘fore Bea worries too much.”

“I promised my mom I’d be home tonight too,” Hop scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.

Victor hums in thought. “I could call my mom and tell her Gloria and I will be stayi-”

“Nae, y’dumbass - y’got a meetin’ wi’ Leon t’morrow,” Gloria reminds. “Both a us do.”

“Aw, shite. You’re right.”

Bede looks up at Marnie.  **_You need to go home and see Piers. You promised him over video call._ **

“You know I can’t understand you when you’re not typin’, right?” Marnie tells him. Bede shrugs. “Don’t tell me - you’re remindin’ me that I need to go home so Piers isn’t worried sick about me either.”

**_Yup._ ** He accentuates this with a nod.  **_You promised him._ **

“Well…” Marnie scratches at her cheek. “I s’ppose you’re safe here in Ballonlea with Opal now, right? I can leave you alone with her tonight, an’ visit the next day again.”

“You don’t sound so sure you want to leave just yet,” Victor points out. “And are you sure you want to go home alone?”

Marnie shoots a glare at him as Opal offers, “I can call Piers for you if you’d like. I haven’t spoken properly with him in ages, anyway. He’ll be glad to know you’re at least safe under my roof if you really do wish to stay the night.”

“I wouldn’t wanna impose.”

“Nonsense. You wouldn’t be imposing in the slightest,” Opal says, eating the rest of her soup before rising from the table to head to the telephone. “He needs to tell me about how he’s doing post-gym leader retirement anyway.”

**_… I was going to ask if you wanted to stay, anyway,_ ** Bede types to her on the Rotomphone. At her look, he adds,  **_It was just a thought._ **

“... You really want me here tonight?”

**_… It’d be nice to not be alone,_ ** he admits.

He knows she understands when she pats his head fur again in response.

* * *

An hour or so later, Bede and Marnie find themselves in his room, with Opal having already retired for the night. Carefully Marnie sets him down on his bed before glancing around on the floor as if looking for a place to lie down.

**_What are you doing?_ ** Bede asks via her Rotomphone.

Marnie answers distractedly, “Lookin’ for a spot to set up a sleepin’ bag.”

**_… You’re kidding, right?_ **

“Do I  _ look  _ like I joke?”

**_Marnie, I’m like… one foot tall,_ ** Bede reminds before patting all over his bed.  **_I am going to DROWN in this bed. There is. SO MUCH UNUSED SPACE._ **

Marnie snorts. “God rest your fucking soul, I guess.”

**_Wow. Thanks, Nie. Very kind of you._ **

“But seriously. What do you want me to do?”

Bede cocks his head to the side.  **_Seriously? Use the bed. I’ll like… take a pillow and curl up on the floor on top of it. You’re the human here._ **

“What the-” Marnie marches over and flicks his two floppy ears at the same time, prompting the Espurr to shriek in protest. “Oi! You cheeky bloke, this is still  _ your  _ bed, and I’m the guest!”

**_And I’m essentially the host. Sleep on the bed._ **

“You are  _ injured. _ ”

**_And this is MY room!_ **

The two of them glare at each other for a few moments before Marnie deflates, shrugging off her jacket and hanging it on one of the bedposts. “Fine. I’ll sleep on your bed. Any funny business and I’m gonna kick your arse t’ Kanto.”

**_Funny bus- excuse me?_ ** Bede asks, fur rising in offense before he realizes that Marnie’s joking, based on the twitch in her lips and the look in her eyes.  **_Oh, HA HA. Very funny. Like I can do anything, even. Or would do anything, even._ **

Marnie sticks her tongue out at him before taking off her boots, eventually crawling under the sheets as Bede goes to wriggle somewhat under the sheets as well. He’d missed the feel of his bed - but it was definitely strange to have someone else on it next to him. “Wow. Your bed’s real comfy.”

**_Thanks. It’s better than what I used to be used to._ **

Marnie’s brow knits together thoughtfully at his words, but she doesn’t say anything. “...”

**_What is it?_ **

“... Nothing,” Marnie says eventually, shaking her head before reaching out to pat his head fur gently. “Thanks, by the way.”

**_What? Why?_ **

“For just… bein’... I dunno. So okay with this, for the most part,” Marnie says, gesturing with her eyes to their surroundings. “I mean, sure you’re not okay with you bein’ an Espurr, but… hey. You’re home, with Opal, and she confirmed what we already assumed - few days’ time will heal you according to the fae.”

**_There’s also evolution… but I don’t know if I want to try that._ **

“Well… you know Light Screen, and that’s at a level way past normal Espurr evolution levels,” Marnie recalls. “So you could evolve at any point if you wanted to.”

**_…_ **

“Bede?”

**_… I still don’t know if I want to try it,_ ** Bede admits.  **_Much as I’d like to be human again by tomorrow or the day after… call me a coward, but I’m not keen on changing shape again like this._ **

“No, no, I get it. I don’t think I would’ve wanted to change forms either if I was in your situation,” Marnie hums thoughtfully. “... ‘Course, I’d have to if I’d been a Morpeko instead of an Espurr, y’know?”

Bede squints.  **_… I can picture you as a Morpeko._ **

“Really now?”

**_Sort of?_ ** Bede stares at her intently. He watches Marnie’s cheeks slowly burn red at his stare.  **_Your hair… it’s kind of got the… the little Morpeko ear shape to it. The things sticking out on the sides when you still wore pigtails often._ **

“Oh yeah… yeah, I think I can see what you mean now.”

**_I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else though,_ ** Bede says.  **_Especially not you._ **

“What do you mean, especially not me?”

Silence.

Bede’s gaze darts down before he eventually types out,  **_If you’d been the one who’d turned into a Pokemon, I probably would be the one carrying you to Spikemuth instead and going home alone._ **

“... Yeah, probably. Piers wouldn’t  _ ever  _ let you sleep in my bed or he’d kill you himself.”

Bede does a full body shudder that makes Marnie laugh.  **_Oh, he is going to KILL me for letting you sleep in mine._ **

“As if I’ll tell him,” Marnie snorts. “He’s too overprotective over the littlest things, anyway. Gloria, Hop, an’ Victor are lucky they can just tangle up with each other and not have anyone breathin’ down their necks about it.”

**_Well, they’re probably dating, even in secret, even though it’s not much of a secret,_ ** Bede offers.  **_People tend to look over the dating types when they do this sort of thing together._ **

“Huh. Figures.”

**_Yeah._ **

Silence again.

“Bede?”

**_Yes?_ **

“... Nothin’.”

**_… You sure?_ **

“... Yeah. Just… I hope you turn back sooner rather than later. I kinda miss bein’ able to talk to you with actual words.”

**_Miss me?_ **

“More than you know.”

Bede’s heart skips a beat at how softly she’d said that, but before he can say anything else, Bede feels his tiny Espurr heart skip yet another beat as her face draws nearer. Before he can comprehend what’s happening, Marnie presses a kiss to his forehead before muttering, “Good night, Bede,” and closing her eyes.

The Rotomphone goes to rest on the bedside table as Bede turns on his side slightly - carefully putting light pressure on his injured leg - to look at Marnie. With only the faintest hints of a glow coming from the windows illuminating his room, Marnie was mostly hidden in shadow compared to him, who was lying closer to the window and the glow from the outside.

It fit, he supposed, that the Dark type gym leader was closer to the darkness.

Gingerly he touches a paw to his forehead - on the place where Marnie had kissed him. It tingles under his touch.

He presses both paws to his cheeks. They’re both warm to the touch.

Bede shuts his eyes. He really needed to sleep before wilder thoughts began racing through his head over such tiny affections.

**Author's Note:**

> pulls everything outta the fucking air but we doin this bois
> 
> pokemon mystery dungeon games are my favorite games


End file.
